Of Troubled Brothers and Troublesome Sisters
by DivineProjectZero
Summary: Genflip! Sibling Gakuen AU. What happens when a  figurative  Nazi, Democrat, Viking, and Communist attempt to take over school? Mixed matchmaking efforts, revenge plots, and plans gone awry are abound. This is not going to be pretty.
1. Of Twin Brothers

Genflip! Sibling Gakuen AU. Various couplings: SpainRomano, Englandfem!Japan, fem!Polandfem!Lithuania, etc. More couples may emerge or change along the way.

**Disclaimer:** If Hetalia were mine, I wouldn't be here. And this disclaimer stands for the rest of this story.

* * *

Lovino Vargas hated Tuesdays.

To be honest, he hated every other day of the week as well, but his loathing for Tuesdays was the greatest. Each and every Tuesday was worse than the last.

(Of course, the second Tuesday of last January was the most mortifying… No, he wasn't going to remember that.)

Anyways, Tuesdays were a bitch.

First of all, he had stupid Home Economics class with the fucking potato bastard. And said potato bastard would be sitting to Lovino's little sister _every single damn time_. They were practically glued together—against Ludwig's own will, but that was beyond Lovino's care—like they thought they were some _couple_ or something (and Lovino did not know that everyone else in the school save for himself recognized the two as an item).

Frustratingly enough, the potato bastard wasn't the only bastard in the class.

There was the idiot American girl who just couldn't shut up, and the Brit who _tried_ to shut her up. Tried. Then, situated at the back of the classroom, was always the damn creepy Russian. It would have been bearable (even though that kol kol kol sound was really disturbing) if only the Russian creep's incestuous sister hadn't taken up the class as well.

Why the hell had he chosen _this_ out of all the fucking electives at his school? Where he had only one damn elective and electives were the only reason a sophomore would have class with juniors? Oh yeah, because Feli had wanted to take it. And Lovino, grudging as he was, had to keep an eye on his sister and that fucking potato bastard_ who just grabbed his sister's wrist_!

"You fucking potato bastard! Get your hands off my sister!" Lovino screamed as he raised the knife he had been using to chop the carrots.

Ludwig eyed the shining knife and the murderous glint in Lovino's eyes with apprehension somewhat akin to fear.

"Ve~ Fratello! Don't kill Ludwig!" Feliciana cried somewhat unconvincingly as she cowered behind the German's back.

"Ooh~! Is this war? Is it war? Can I be the commander of our team?" Alyssa Jones squealed.

"Now is not the time, Alyssa," Arthur Kirkland admonished her.

Lovino's fury only climbed higher when her heard snickers and voices behind him: just more reason to hate Tuesdays and Home Economics.

"Someone is angry today, _non_?"

"I'd say that he is jealous that his sister has a boyfriend while he doesn't!"

The French pervert and the potato bastard's brother were going to be victimized by Lovino's knife right _now_. The potato bastard could wait. The teacher wasn't going to stop him; she had given up on restraining any of the students a long time ago. Specifically ever since Natalya had shown the class what exactly was held in that bag of hers…

"Lovi, the onions are done! We should start on the lettuce now."

Lovino jerked his head back to glare at his cooking partner for the day. Amiable green eyes were looking back expectantly with that ever-present smile stretched on handsome features. Lovino briefly considered aiming the weapon at the Spaniard before negating the idea—he already tried once and the idiot hadn't even flinched.

"Back off, bastard. I'm going to dispose of those rotten potatoes first." Lovino growled.

Antonio Carriedo looked mildly puzzled. "But Lovi, we don't use potatoes in this recipe."

Apparently the idiot didn't realize that his best friends were on the verge of being murdered. Lovino scowled and debated between using the knife as a culinary tool or a murder weapon before he decided to go with the former. The latter could be performed after the cooking was done.

Shortly later, during second period, Lovino chewed his lip in frustration at how his plan to rid the world of evil—which took form in perverted Frenchmen and potato bastards that couldn't keep their hands off his sister—had been dashed to bits. Again.

"Cheer up, Lovino! At least none of them are in this class." Im Yong Soo was performing his weekly ritual of cheering Lovino up.

And like every week, Lovino's response was the same.

"Which means that I can't keep an eye on that potato bastard while he has World History with Feliciana!" Lovino snarled. Yong Soo didn't even bat an eye.

"So keep your mind off of them as well." The Korean shrugged. "C'mon, Matthew saved us a table! If we don't get there fast, people are gonna start sitting down because they won't notice he's there. Then we won't be sitting together!"

Lovino rolled his eyes. "And why would I want to sit with you guys?"

"Because we're the only ones in our entire Physics class who don't get on your nerves?" and who can tolerate you?

But Yong Soo omitted the last part; he didn't need a homicidal Lovino on his back.

"...Valid point," the Italian grumbled as he heaved his backpack onto a shoulder.

When the two arrived at class, Matthew Williams waved them over to the (thankfully) empty table. As the Korean and Italian took their respective seats, Matthew handed Yong Soo a calculator.

"Your sister told me to tell you that you should bring your own calculator instead of asking for it during the first block. And to stop asking for it via text messaging during the lesson."

Yong Soo grinned and dropped the device into his bag. "Well, Kiku has ninja skills. She can handle a few messages under a teacher's nose."

Matthew sighed. "You sound just like Alyssa."

"Of course I do. She's the one who said so!" Yong Soo said.

The Canadian soundlessly buried his face into his palms. Lovino snorted.

"Who would think that Matthew was actually that hamburger addict's twin _and _a friend of the kimchi kid?" the Italian suggested with an amused smirk.

"Hey, you're my friend too!" Yong Soo pouted.

"I am not." Lovino stated.

"Yes you are! Scratch that, we're probably your _only_ friends—"

"What did you say, you bastard?"

The whole class turned to watch the Korean and the Italian bicker (it was a weekly show that ended up with everyone betting over who would win the argument of the day) while a certain Canadian sank into his chair. Thankfully, nobody took notice of him.

"Um, guys…" Matthew mustered the courage to intervene. "Class started, and the teacher's here…"

Of course, nobody heard him.

* * *

"I'll strip his Korean ass and turn it into a bloody piece of Swiss cheese!" Lovino scowled as he plopped down into his seat after lunch. Matthew slid into the seat beside Lovino with a small chuckle.

"You said the exact same thing last week." The blonde pointed out.

"Because he got us into lunch detention last week too!" The brunette snapped.

The rather loud exclamation was met with a glare from a girl who had been lazily drawing patterns on the desk with her finger. Matthew smiled apologetically to the Norwegian.

"Well, Yong Soo is always like that…"Matthew murmured.

"Always idiotic, obnoxious, bratty Korean." Lovino grumbled in response. "How the hell did he get into High Level Math?"

Because he's Korean? Matthew mused soundlessly. There was simply no use pointing such things out to Lovino; it only gave him more things to rant about. Matthew decided to change the topic.

"Well, at least Feliciana is in this class." And Ludwig isn't. Thank God for small favors.

"As if I want to be in a class with her," Lovino said. But the grumble was half-hearted.

"Having a sister your age is a good thing," Matthew agreed with the silent sentiment.

That was perhaps why such an odd trio had been formulated in the first place. Lovino, Matthew, and Yong Soo all shared a unique fact in common: they had sisters the same age as they were. While Matthew and Lovino had twin sisters, Alyssa and Feliciana, Yong Soo had his step-sister Kiku.

To be truthful, Matthew was glad for those sibling relationships. After all, Lovino and Yong Soo were nice to befriend once you got used to them…

"Ve, fratello! Guess what Ludwig gave me today!" the cheerful half of the Italian twins burst in.

"The potato bastard_ what!_"

Well, even though it took a lot of time to get used to Lovino's temper (and Yong Soo's groping)…

* * *

It was the last period of the day, and Yong Soo could see the Tuesday take its toll on Lovino. The brunette was muttering Italian at an incoherent speed—not that coherency mattered; they were probably swear words anyways—as he lay face-down on the desk.

In short, Lovino looked pretty wiped. Even his curl looked like it was drooping a bit.

"You okay?" He didn't want to ask. He didn't want to hear. He didn't want to know. But letting Lovino keep it in was worse than stashing porn under the bed. While the porn may overflow at worst, Lovino exploded. Complete with fireworks and colorful swear words and violence.

Letting the steam out was the safest choice.

"No. I. Am. Not. Okay." The Italian ground out.

Even though an adequate amount of damage would be inevitable. But it was worth it. …Right?

"I had Home Economics with a pile of bastards, got lunch detention again with you _again_, got my ass kicked in dodgeball by that hamburger monster friend of yours during PE class, had a fucking Math test, received a load of Spanish homework, and now I have fucking World History with you!"

Yong Soo was sure he was going to go deaf at a young age. He'd need hearing aids after having sonic blasts from Lovino every Tuesday.

"I'm sure it can't get worse." Yong Soo placated the Italian. And himself. If anything worse happened, Lovino would surely open the door to hell. And Yong Soo would be sucked into it.

No, nothing better happen.

"Excuse me~ Did anyone see a small yellow bird in here? _Alguien_?"

Oh. Oh fuck. Hell no.

Lovino's eyebrow twitched as he slowly raised his head to aim a glare that promised the apocalypse towards the doorway, where a certain oblivious Hispanic upperclassman was repeating his query. Yong Soo stopped breathing.

"Did anyone see Gilbert's yellow… Ah, Lovi!" Antonio was clueless about the murderous potential held in Lovino's icy glare.

"You…." A corner of Lovino's mouth twitched. "…Bastard….!"

Friendship was awesome. Yes, Yong Soo thought that friendship was priceless. But his life wasn't worth it. Nope, not at all.

The Korean fled the classroom without a glance back as Lovino's infuriated screech echoed through the halls.

* * *

"Ha! Now you own me ten bucks!" The albino cackled.

"_Mon ami_, that bet was too easy for you." The blonde pulled a bill from his wallet with a sigh.

"All the more why I bet on it! You could hear the kid from _anywhere,_ ha!" The winner was positively delighted.

The small bird on his head chirped.

"That's right Gilbird! I'm too awesome to lose a measly bet!" Gilbert Beilschmidt grinned with malice.

Francis Bonnefoy clicked his tongue. "Antoine needs to be a little more perceptive. He should have noticed that the bird was on your head when you asked him to find it for you."

Gilbert simply laughed. "Too bad he didn't notice! Anyways, he just needed a damn excuse to go see the kid he's so smitten with."

Never mind that the boy who the Spaniard was so smitten with was endangering said Spaniard's life at the very moment.

"You idiot, stupid, bastard! Fucking bastard!" Lovino screamed with a chair in one hand, stapler in another.

The entire class had backed out of the room, which now looked like a haphazard tornado had torn through the premises. The only occupant of the room other than Lovino was Antonio, who was somehow miraculously unscathed. Not only was he unharmed, but he was smiling widely.

"Lovi~ You're face is like a tomato! _Bonito!_" Antonio nearly cooed.

Scratch that. Maybe the guy had been whacked on the head.

Lovino's voice was dangerously low as he growled, "Bastard—"

"Lovino! Antonio! The classroom is a mess! What have you done?" A female's voice interrupted.

Both who had been named turned to face a blonde girl with her hands on her hips. Antonio brightened up—how he could become even _more_ cheerful than his prior state was a mystery—and greeted the newcomer, "Hola, Belle!"

Lovino seemed infinitesimally calmer as he also acknowledged her presence, "Hi."

"Well, you two can talk it out later. Right now, Antonio, you come with me. We need to finish the lab right now or we get an F!" Belle grabbed hold of Antonio's sleeve and started to drag him off.

As the Belgian girl forced him up the stairs, Antonio managed to turn and yell over his shoulder, "See you later, Lovi!"

Lovino suppressed the urge to go strangle the idiot and chose to place the chair back on the floor instead. He sat down on it and glared at the rest of his class.

"So are we having class or not?" Lovino demanded.

Probably not. At least until the classroom was restored to its original condition.

* * *

At the other end of the building, Roderich Edelstein sighed. He didn't have much time left to be the student council president, and he was glad for it. The reason mostly belonged to the fact that there was a mass destruction of some sort on campus once every week.

To be specific, once every Tuesday. Roderich didn't want to handle any more complaints and repair bills and threats from Vash regarding the peril of school funds.

All in all, Roderich Edelstein hated Tuesdays.

* * *

_/ Oh dear._

_Yes, DPZ has done it again. I've started another story. And this is the longest one planned yet. I was writing other stuff, but the inspiration hit me and here we are. This is one huge project. I hope I finish it..._

_So this is my first Hetalia fic :) I wasn't planning to start off with such a longterm project, but writer's instinct takes you there. I'm enjoying a lot of this, especially how the Lovino-Yong Soo-Matthew trio are just hitting it off. They have so many similarities and relations (historically and personally) that I would love to exploit thoroughly. Also, having everybody as siblings was complicated but exciting for me. I just hope I don't mess up. The plot is developing slowly (I already threw out a hint of the chaos to come. anyone spot it?) but surely._

_I had the POVs rotate through each 'brother' of the trio (there are plenty of brothers here anyways) for this chapter, but I might stay fixed on POV starting from next time. If you have any suggestions/criticism/compliments please tell me!_

_Oh, and about Yong Soo in High Level Math... There's this stereotype (and fairly true statement) that Korean's are good at math. Just thought I'd put it to use :P_

_Fratello_ = Brother

_Alguien_ = anybody

_Bonito_ = cute


	2. Of Twin Sisters

_To people who have been gracious enough to read through this first chapter and start this one, I am very thankful. I have been asked to add in some pairings, and I thank you for all the feedback and suggestions. I have planned Of Brothers and Sisters as a very long series consisting of several multi-chap fics. As a result, I have planned a multitude of couples beforehand (though I may change my mind about some), so please don't be offended if your favorite pairing is missing. And while many new couples will form and some may break up, I plan to keep most of my couples a surprise. As of now, there are only three "official" couples in this story._

_**Couples:** SpainRomano, Englandfem!Japan, fem!Polandfem!Lithuania_

* * *

Honda Kiku was trapped.

There was a Korean closing in from the eastern hallway and a Hungarian approaching from the northern one. This wasn't a life or death situation.

It was a terrifying death or mortifying death situation.

What had she done to merit such bad luck? And where was her self-proclaimed heroic best friend when she needed her the most?

Probably very far away. Alyssa was moderately terrified of the Hungarian upperclassman.

"Kiku, I know you're there~!" "You should stop avoiding me _da ze_!"

Both voices were quite close now.

This was bad. She had to choose quickly and wisely the least painful doom before the two of them got a hold of her simultaneously. Kiku squeezed her eyes shut and prepared for the inevitable—

"I was looking for you, Kiku."

—And opened her eyes to face her savior.

"Arthur-san…" Kiku let out the breath she had been holding in.

Arthur smiled and held out his hand. "Sorry I was a little late. Alyssa just told me that you were here."

"It's okay." The Asian shook her head and allowed a small smile to grace her features. She slid her hand into his and walked into the hallway.

Yong Soo and Elizaveta whipped around.

"Kiku, darling, I need some help from you." The Hungarian started to plead, when Yong Soo interrupted.

"Come on Kiku! You said you'd hang out with me today!" Her stepbrother whimpered pathetically enough—how did such a tall boy master the art of puppy eyes? This was unfair!—for Kiku to nearly rethink her decision.

Nearly.

"I'm sorry, Elizaveta-san. I am a little busy today. And Yong Soo, I am terribly sorry, but I can't spend much time with you for now. Go help nii-sama with the groceries, and perhaps you may spend time with him instead."

Better to have Yao molested than herself. Kiku sent a mental apology to her elder brother.

Yong Soo pouted, but seemed to like the idea of quality time (and groping) with Yao. He was about to turn when he caught sight of the two intertwined hands. He raised an eyebrow before throwing Arthur a _look_. Kiku never could really decipher what that look meant.

Arthur seemed to get it, if the slight tightening of his hand was anything to go by.

"…Well," Yong Soo switched his gaze to a happier one as he changed his focal point to Kiku, "I'll get going then. See ya _da ze_~!"

Meanwhile, Elizaveta seemed to have reached a conclusion that following Yong Soo with a camera in hand would be a more productive activity than continuing a conversation with Kiku. With a wave and wink, the fangirl had silently dashed off after the Korean with an evil grin.

Arthur sighed.

"Your brother doesn't like me," he muttered.

Kiku gave his hand an apologetic squeeze. "I'm sorry. Yong Soo really should get used to this."

Especially since she had been dating Arthur for a little over two years now.

Arthur shook his head. "It isn't your fault."

After a quick glance around to check for any unwanted voyeurs (Elizaveta was thankfully putting unofficial homosexual relationships as her priority over official heterosexual couples), Arthur pressed a kiss to Kiku's brow.

Kiku felt her face flush. She never got used to such displays of affection no matter how many times Arthur did them. Not that he did them a lot.

"Well, ah— "

Kiku found herself cut off when Arthur briefly pressed his lips to hers.

This was distracting, embarrassing, and potentially scandalous. They were on school grounds!

...Not that Kiku minded when she could see Arthur smiling with such satisfaction.

"Everyone is probably waiting. Shall we?" Ever the gentleman, Arthur gently tugged his girlfriend down the hall.

Forget about Yong Soo getting used to this.

Kiku was the one who needed to adapt to having a boyfriend.

* * *

Feliciana Vargas was used to screams and upended desks and unbridled fury.

After all, beholding a spectacle similar to the apocalypse becomes a daily event when having a brother like Lovino. Her fratello had the temper of an infuriated bull ready to snap in a matter of seconds. Over many years, Feliciana had learned that she would be safe as long as harm was on the other side of Ludwig.

Which was probably why she ended up happily writing down new ideas for pasta recipes while chaos erupted around her.

Ludwig had given up restoring order and now sat next to Feliciana with his face in his hands. The Italian girl had poked him a few times to make sure he wasn't crying before returning cheerfully to the page of notes she had.

Meanwhile, Gilbert and Roderich were having an interesting sparring match with a ruler and a broom. Francis was cheering them on and unbuttoning an oblivious Antonio's shirt at the same time. Vash Zwingli sat in the corner with his hand twitching towards his bag.

Feliciana's internal danger sensor alerted her to switch seats so that Ludwig was sitting between her and the Swiss boy.

"Hah! You'll never beat my awesomeness, Roddy! You think your puny little ruler can do any damage to the awesome me?"

Feliciana didn't know who was going to win the fight at this point, but she thought that Gilbert was going to lose an eye soon to the puny little ruler if he kept taunting Roderich. The Austrian was scary when he was angry, after all.

Ludwig heaved a sigh without looking up.

"We're here!" The door opened as Arthur yelled out his and Kiku's presence over the din.

Feliciana perked up at the sight of Arthur with a very flustered Kiku—she was blushing a shade of red that Lovino would have difficulty blushing, and that was no everyday feat—in tow.

The sandy-haired blonde glanced over the members of the so-called meeting.

"…So why did you call us over?"

Arthur decided to address the apparently distressed Ludwig rather than ask the others: an oblivious Antonio missing a shirt, a smirking Francis sitting on shirtless Antonio's lap, a Gilbert holding his abdomen in pain, a victorious Roderich who had delivered an acute stab successfully, and a Vash who seemed on the brink of pulling out a weapon, and Feliciana.

Apparently Ludwig, regardless of his stressful condition, was the best pick.

Feliciana pouted when the couple separated—Arthur stepped to Ludwig and Kiku slipped into the unoccupied seat next to Feliciana's—but immediately recovered and squealed in glee, throwing her arms around her Japanese friend in the process.

"Ve, Kiku! I made a new recipe for pasta~!"

"That's very nice, Feli-sa…Feli-chan." Kiku corrected herself.

Feliciana had insisted on Kiku changing the honorifics, and her friend had been working on it for the past semester. Feliciana hugged her cute Asian friend with renewed gusto. Then she heard Ludwig.

"Ask him. He's in charge of this mess."

Ah right. They were all here on a mission.

Ludwig was wearily gesturing in the direction of his older brother. The albino, noticing the attention that he was receiving, straightened up with a grin.

"That's right, the awesome me has called for the lot of you!"

Arthur looked like he wanted to go home.

* * *

Alyssa Jones was heading back to school.

Classes had ended an hour ago and _nobody_ was back at their homes. Mattie had called in to tell her that he was with his Italian friend (the grumpy one) working on an English project. Yong Soo was apparently in the middle of molesting his stepbrother—the Korean said they were grocery shopping, but the string of Chinese curses and that unnecessarily whining tone of "Yao _hyung_~" was enough to tell Alyssa the truth—at the supermarket. Arthur and Kiku were together at school.

And apparently, according to Heidi Zwingli, everybody else was too.

But for what?

It was a hero's job to find out! Something suspicious was going on, and Alyssa was going to find out exactly what this scheme was.

So she had donned her favorite bomber jacket and started sprinting for school.

It was troubling to think that Arthur and Kiku might be in a tight situation, and it was a likely guess; it seemed that both of the Beillschmidt brothers and Francis were also at school (there were others, but those three were what worried her the most). Francis was annoying because he was, well, _Francis_. He could touch Arthur all he wanted—no, not really, but that wasn't the point—but if he dared to lay a finger on _Kiku_…

If he dared, that finger was going to be gone by tomorrow. Alyssa had seen Arthur be protective over Kiku before.

And then there were the Beillschmidt brothers. Ludwig and Gilbert.

If they had done anything to her best friends, they were going to pay. Oh, they would be crying for mercy if they had hurt Arthur or Kiku _again_—

No. Better not to think about that.

"…So where is everybody?" Alyssa asked to the empty hallways as she looked around.

Maybe they weren't at school? Could they have been abducted? By aliens? Alyssa shivered.

But she'd feel sorry for any aliens that had to abduct Heidi's brother. Vash could turn nasty when he got his hands on his guns…

Wait, she heard something.

"You are looking for something, da?"

Alyssa swallowed a shriek and whirled around to face an evil greater than the Beillschmidt brothers and aliens and trigger-happy Vash all put together: Ivan Braginsky.

He had somehow sneaked up behind her without attracting any notice, which was quite a feat for such a big guy…

"Oh, um, yeah."

She was not scared. She was not intimidated. She was not cowering, damn it!

"I was looking for my friends…You know, Arthur and Kiku? Have you seen them?" _Are you the one who is holding them captive?_

If so, Alyssa was going to need backup. A lot of it.

The Russian was a little too close for comfort. "Arthur… Kirkland? The one in my grade?"

Well duh. "Yeah. Him."

"I saw him at the student council room thirty minutes ago. Maybe he's still there, da?"

Alyssa sighed in relief at the prospect that she didn't need to go on a suicide mission against the crazy Russian yet. "Thanks."

"No problem, da? And did you see Toria? Toria Laurinaitis?" Ivan loomed over Alyssa.

God, that Lithuanian girl better run for her life.

"Um, no. Sorry?" Alyssa took a step backwards, increasing the distance between her and Ivan.

"No problem, da." The Russian emitted a suspicious sound that sounded like "kol kol kol" as he turned his back to Alyssa.

She took her chance and bolted towards the student council room as fast as she could.

Alyssa was a good runner. Athletics had always been her strength, and she was glad she could put her legs to a good use as she ran to rescue her friends (no, she wasn't fleeing from Ivan; that wouldn't be heroic!) from whatever was keeping them in that room.

The room was right around the corner. Alyssa turned around the corner when she heard a triumphant voice yell ferociously. She recognized that voice….

"We are now taking over this school!"

Gilbert Beillschmidt.

Beillschmidt had just announced that the school was his. He might as well have proclaimed world domination. The evil albino had finally started on his scheme!

And the hero was here to stop him.

Alyssa flung the door open and declared war on him.

"I'm not letting you, you damn criminal!"

She hadn't expected a four inch binder to come knock her out.

* * *

The entire room was silenced as the American got whacked in the face with the binder Arthur had just thrown. Alyssa slumped to the floor. Arthur blinked.

"Bloody hell!" Arthur ran up to the dazed girl and attempted to shake her awake.

"Aly-chan!" Kiku stood up and made her way to the victim.

"Nice aim, Artie!" crowed Gilbert, who had dodged the binder just in time.

"Shut up, you git!"

Roderich knocked Gilbert across the head before the albino bit back a retort. The Austrian's annoyance was evident behind the lenses of his glasses.

"You should have let that binder hit you, you idiot. Who said I'm letting you have this school?"

"Aw, Roddy~. Sad that you can't play king of the pansies anymore? No worries! The awesome me will have such an awesome regime you'll be worshipping my sheer awesomeness awesomely soon!"

Gilbert was the only person who could fit so many "awesome"s in one sentence.

"No way, you evil albino alien…"

Alyssa had somehow regained consciousness. She sat upright and glared up at Gilbert.

"You can't take over this school! I'm not letting you! And you think the school board will let you do that?" Alyssa got to her feet and faced the epitome of evil.

Arthur, who had also stood up, stared at the American with a dumbstruck expression.

Alyssa had actually mentioned the school board. She'd been logical. She'd actually sounded fucking _sensible_. This was the equivalent of Feliciana turning down a dish of pasta.

Or the equivalent of Gilbert denying that he was awesome.

"Well, too bad! Because not even the school board can stop me from this one!"

Gilbert looked too smug for Alyssa's liking. And for the liking of pretty much everyone else in the room except for Feliciana, who was simply clueless.

"Ve~, so what are we doing?"

The albino answered with a feral grin.

"I'm running for student council president! And you guys are supporting the awesome me!"

Everybody shut up.

For the first time in his life, Gilbert had come up with a legal excuse to take over school.

* * *

_/ I think the pacing of the story was a little off this time... And sorry to Spamano fans! They'll come out (eventually)! This was a sort of filler. I rotated through the perspectives of the sisters this time. Feliciana is so hard to characterize. _

_So I'm taking suggestions for two things. First, anyone have ideas for fem!Poland's name? I was thinking "Felice" but it's similar to Feliciana. So I'm open to ideas, as long as the name is similar to Feliks. Second, I'm looking through the fandom for inspiration and all. So if you could recommend me any genderflip! AU fics (preferably Gakuen AU), please tell me! Thank you!_

_Reviews? ;D_


	3. Of Older Brothers with Younger Brothers

_Chapters are getting longer..._

* * *

Younger brothers could be such a pain in the ass.

That was what Wang Yao thought as he pushed away his youngest sibling off his lap. Yong Soo whined as his bottom made contact with the floor, but Yao brushed the boy off and entered the kitchen.

"_Hyung_~!"

The Korean was clingy, whiny, and wholesomely obnoxious.

"_Hyung_, pleeeeeaase?"

Especially with those damned puppy eyes.

"No, aru. " The Chinaman was sick of being groped like no other, and Yong Soo should have learned that when they had become a family eight years ago. At least Yong Soo was a little adorable (still a pain in the ass, but an adorable pain in the ass) when he had been eight years old. Now, the Korean boy was sixteen and Yao was eighteen. He was graduating high school in less than two months!

Damn. He did not just feel old right now.

"Yong Soo, where is Kiku aru? She should be home by now." Yao changed the subject.

"With her _Nam-chin_, Mr. Kickass Eyebrows _da ze_." Yong Soo's face darkened at that.

"Aiyah, Kirkland?" Yao dismissed the opportunity to chastise Yong Soo's slang and opted to sigh instead. Neither brother had really appreciated their sister's boyfriend.

"If it weren't for that bastard, Kiku wouldn't have cut her hair_ da ze_!"

...Even if Yong Soo hated the Brit for an absurd reason.

Still, Yao halfway agreed with his brother. Kiku had been gorgeous with long hair. Of course, the short haircut she had suited her well just the same. She looked quite sophisticated, albeit maybe boyish.

(No wonder Yao looked like the most feminine out of the siblings.

…Was that why Yong Soo groped him the most?

Maybe he should get a haircut after all.)

"So when is she coming back, aru?" Better be before dinnertime.

Or a certain Brit was going to deal with an angry Chinaman and Korean.

Yong Soo was about to reply when a smashing sound erupted from the front door. Both Asians looked at the general direction of the hall with looks of recognition on their faces. Yao didn't move; the door was going to be a lost cause by the time he reached the hallway.

The door crashed down as an American hurtled into the house.

Yao groaned and covered his face with a sleeve.

"Yong Soo! I can't believe this! I just can't believe this!" Alyssa stormed into the living room, leaving the unhinged door behind her.

"What _da ze_?" Yong Soo was unfazed. Alyssa destroying the front door and barging into the Asian residence was perfectly normal, much to the chagrin of Yao.

"Kiku's been brainwashed by the evil alien! And Artie too!" Alyssa was shouting, and Yao wanted to reprimand the girl (not like she listened anyways) if it wasn't for how upset she looked.

The girl looked like she was on the verge of tears.

Yong Soo seemed to notice her distress. He held her shoulders and looked into her eyes. With a tone that amazed Yao every time he heard it, Yong Soo asked, "Aly, where is Kiku_ da ze_?"

"…School, I think. She should…come soon." She seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"Is Matthew home?"

"He should be by now."

Yao watched the two, marveling at how two rowdy individuals could calm each other down. Maybe it was the magic of being best friends. Yao had never learned of such magic. His whole life had been about survival, fighting for a place in the world, looking after his two siblings. Protecting them.

And utterly failing to do so.

"_Hyung_, I'll be over at Aly's house, _da ze_. You can have dinner without me if you're hungry!"

Yong Soo interrupted Yao's moody thought process with a call over his shoulder. Alyssa, who had apparently been set aflame with some sort of determination, was dragging the Korean out of the house through the demolished doorway (Yao was not too worried about the cost; he was getting discounts thanks to frequent purchases of doors now). Yao watched the pair disappear and voices fade away.

With a heavy sigh, Yao made his way toward the stove. As he reached to turn the thing on, he felt a buzz from his pocket.

[I will be late for dinner._ Gomennasai_. Did Alyssa go there?]

It was a text from Kiku. Not bothering to reply, Yao pocketed the Shinatty phone and turned the stove on. He cooked in silence.

_Nabe_. _Kimchi Jjigae_. _Jiaozi_.

Japanese. Korean. Chinese.

He had learned to cook them all. Say them all. Write them all. All for the sake of his beautiful sister and (although annoying) sweet brother. He had fought for them, lived for them, laughed and cried for them.

But both sister and brother had ended up screaming and crying and bleeding. Yao couldn't stop it. He couldn't do anything. He didn't save his siblings.

The American girl did.

And now that girl was best friends with both of Yao's siblings and the center of their lives. That girl was (probably, since Kiku had not shared details) why that stupid Englishman had stepped into Kiku's life and took her, his beloved sister, away from Yao.

(But no, Kiku had not belonged to Yao. She had already left him, hadn't she?)

Yao wrapped most of the food and set them on the kitchen counter for his siblings to eat later. He set his own meal on the dining table and seated himself.

His _meime_i. His _didi_. His family he had loved, cherished, treasured. The two people he loved the most.

The two he had lost.

Lost to an American and Brit whom had whisked them away from Yao, who now ate dinner by himself so often that he was used to it by now.

Yao suddenly felt very lonely.

* * *

Gilbert was never lonely.

He was simply too awesome to be lonely. Everybody wanted to be with him at all times, so of course he was never lonely. Even when Tonio was busy wagging his tail at the grumpy Italian and Francis was occupied with wooing every girl (and guy) in the near vicinity and Ludwig just didn't want to have anything to do with his older brother. Gilbert's awesomeness was so awesome that it accompanied him wherever he went, so of course he wasn't lonely!

Okay, he could be a bit of a loner sometimes. But that just made him more awesome!

Right?

"Now someone looks lonely~!"

A certain Hungarian snickered with a hint of malice.

Gilbert's eyebrow twitched.

"What, you've been looking at the mirror? I'm sure no man in his right mind wants to be with the frying-pan-wielding-devil that you are. You're hardly a woman!"

It was Elizaveta's turn to twitch.

"Unlike you, I'm not a teacher's nightmare or the entire school's most infamous badass-wannabe who can't even land himself in a decent relationship!"

In fact, she was every boy's nightmare and the entire town's most infamous yaoi fangirl who had managed to land in a relationship suspected of domestic violence with the gayest pansy in the entire school.

But Gilbert saved this opinion for himself for safety reasons.

"Oh yeah? And you think you're so much better than my awesomeness? You date _Roderich_ for fuck's sake! Man, he must be some serious masochist to hang out with you. How can he stand you?" Gilbert stuck his tongue out in a very manly way.

"Maybe because he could endure your very poisonous presence for over five years?" Elizaveta shot back.

"Well duh, since I'm the most awesome man he's ever met! He should be honored to know me!"

"From when did the definition of 'awesome' become 'intellectually lacking, socially retarded, and appallingly obnoxious', I wonder?" The venom in the devil-woman's voice was pure acid.

"You really need to learn what awesome means. Christ, I can't believe Roddy actually _likes _you."

Elizaveta bristled.

Without warning, Gilbert found himself sprawled on the floor a few feet away from where he had originally been standing. His head was thrumming with a familiar type of pain. He groaned and glared at the devil with her favorite weapon in hand, looking at him like he was scum or something.

Had she just pulled that frying pan from under skirt?

Gilbert really didn't want to know.

"Elizaveta."

The gayest pansy of the school (dubbed by Gilbert) made his appearance. Roderich glanced at Gilbert and pushed his glasses up with obvious disdain.

How gay was _that?_

"Ignore the idiot. Let's go." The Austrian brushed by Gilbert and offered his arm to the Hungarian. She happily took it (where the hell did the frying pan go?) and walked off with him. Gilbert stared after the couple.

They were going to pay.

(And Gilbert had just _not _sniffled. He was too manly and awesome to sniffle.)

Gilbert had his plans. Even darn Roddy had been unable to deter his awesome plans. It was perfect.

_Everyone had stared at Gilbert in awe of his awesomeness and his awesome plan. The gun maniac Swiss kid had snorted. Francis stopped his…whatever he was doing to Tonio, who looked up at Gilbert with sparkly eyes and a smile shining with adoration (even _West_ had admitted that for a split second Tonio had looked like he was watching God) that matched the gaze the Spaniard often directed to the older Vargas twin. _

_That was pretty big._

_Roddy was absolutely speechless. West looked horrified, for some obscure reason. Feli had clapped her hands together gleefully with a sweet smile and a shout of "Ve, Gilbert is awesome!"_

_Seriously, he should get West and the girl together. Right after he landed Tonio with the Lovino kid. _

_Then the priceless reaction had come from the last three. The Anglo-Japanese couple and the American bitch. Artie and Jones had been pretty much expected. Furry eyebrows nearly furrowing into his hairline, Artie had plain gaped at the essence of awesome. It was so funny—Gilbert had never seen the Brit so damn dumbstruck before even in the _worst_ circumstances—that Gilbert could have awarded the expression an awesome award or something. _

_Same went for Jones. She pretty much _flipped out_. She had yelled about how it was illegal for aliens (the hell? Was alien another term for awesome these days?) to run for student council and all that bullshit. Gilbert wished he could have videotaped the entire thing._

_During the American's raving, two very interesting things had happened._

_The first one was when Vash Zwingli calmly asked a question that had everyone, except for that damn loud American, stop and stare at Gilbert in pure curiosity._

"_Do you meet all the requirements? Your grades and teacher recommendations, you know."_

_Jones didn't even pause in her rant as Gilbert answered with a smug face._

"_In fact, yes. I pass the grade requirements and got both recommendations."_

_He didn't add the fact that he barely passed the grade requirements and that the recommendations had been practically ripped off from his _Opa_ (History teacher) and the principal himself (who happened to be the grandfather of the Vargas twins, how convenient)._

_Now poor Roddy looked like he had been slapped. West looked immediately suspicious and amazed at the same time. Artie looked like he was going to start foaming at the mouth and faint. Francis and Tonio both looked mightily impressed._

_Was the fact that Gilbert could make passing grades _that_ incredible?_

_Don't answer that._

_Anyways, the second interesting event was the one that shut Jones _up_. And even the composed Vash had looked like he had missed a step down the stairs and had crashed to the bottom._

_Kiku had grabbed Artie's sleeve and murmured, loudly enough for everyone to hear, one sentence._

"_I think we should help out."_

Six words. Spoken in two seconds. Eliciting a full minute of silence and staring. Jones looked like she'd been knocked out with a roundhouse kick and then told that Gilbert was her father. It was awesome.

It was fucking brilliant.

Gilbert had called along Honda because she was friends with West and Feli. But he hadn't really expected such immediate cooperation. Damn, West had some awesome girlfriends.

Not that Honda was dating West.

Well, she was dating someone else. Someone useful and could potentially help Gilbert with his scheme.

Someone who was utterly under Honda's thumb and at her mercy.

* * *

Arthur Kirkland could never really say no to his girlfriend.

Kiku was truly a lovely girl, and she deserved so much. More than Arthur could possibly give her. So when she had actually boldly stated her wish to support the daft idiot's choice, he couldn't help but agree.

Even though Alyssa's betrayed look had made the guilt trip a heavy one.

Of course, Arthur didn't like the idea of helping Gilbert. He _abhorred_ the idea of being any kind of aid, indirect or direct, to the damned albino. Gilbert had been the very opposite of helpful those fateful years ago, and Arthur had his own share of downright depressing memories regarding those arrogant ruby eyes.

And Gilbert was partly why Kiku had gotten hurt; a portion of the reason why Kiku still had that scar stretching across her back.

Sometimes, Arthur still wanted to kill that son of a bitch and rip him into shreds.

But Kiku didn't want that. She wanted to actually _help_ Gilbert. Help the bastard become the fucking president of student council. Help the egomaniac ex-hoodlum obtain the position as the absolute dictator of the entire school.

For the first time in his life, Arthur had briefly questioned his girlfriend's sanity.

Maybe it had to do with the pathetic excuse Gilbert had come up with as to why he was going to become the ruler of the high school. Kiku was friends with Feliciana after all.

"_That's right, the awesome me has called for the lot of you!"_

"_What the hell for?" Arthur had asked without bothering to hide his annoyance._

"_Because," Gilbert paused for dramatic effect, "we need to take some desperate measures and get our Tonio together with Lovino!"_

_A sharp yelp was heard as Francis was knocked off from Antonio. The Spaniard had obviously not known of Gilbert's intentions._

"_Gil, really? Lovi and I can be together? You're helping?"_

_Antonio looked like a puppy that had a bone dangling in front of him. Arthur grimaced. What had become of the merciless owner of the alleyways? Lovino had tamed quite the beast._

"_Yep! As long as you guys help me out, then you earn three dates with him!"_

_Three dates were far from actually going into a relationship. But this was _Lovino_ they were talking about; even one date would be quite an accomplishment. If Antonio actually made it out alive, that was._

"Bruder_, what are we helping you with exactly?" Ludwig managed to ask over Feliciana's squealing and hugging that was distributed evenly between Kiku and Ludwig._

_(Meanwhile, Arthur noticed, Kiku suddenly looked abruptly attentive, as if something had caught her attention and she was extremely interested.)_

"_I made a bet with him!" If possible, Gilbert's grin grew even wider._

"_What bet?" _

_Arthur thanked the heavens that Ludwig was such a responsible brother. Even if the responsibility had been lacking at a crucial time several years ago._

"_Nothing big," which was a worrisome statement coming from Gilbert. _

"_What exactly," pressed Ludwig._

_Gilbert shrugged. "He said he'd go on three dates with Tonio if I could legally obtain the school funds under my family name and change the school lunch diet so that tomatoes came out for every meal and gave a speech to the whole school about West with potatoes so that West becomes a laughingstock."_

_Everyone literally stared. Arthur felt sorry for Ludwig._

"_So, I can do all that stuff if I rule the school—oh hey, it rhymes! Isn't that awesome?—legally." Gilbert seemed proud of his achievement._

"_There's no actual legal way to accomplish such nonsense." Roderich pointed out. _

_Gilbert smirked. _

"_Not if I actually _do_ get to own the school, at least metaphorically."_

_Enthusiastic, Feliciana chirped. "Ve, we're helping Gilbert own the school?"_

_Gilbert had barked a laugh and proceeded to yell. "Yep, We are now taking over this school!"_

_Arthur threw a binder at the blasted idiot._

_And that was when Alyssa came in._

Of all times when she had to come in! Arthur groaned at the very memory. The girl had _such_ horrendous timing. Getting hit by a binder was one thing, but witnessing your best friend actually take side with whom you deemed as an "evil alien" was simply…Arthur couldn't even describe it.

He and the entire group had watched Alyssa try to formulate words, come up with some sort of argument. The shock, however, had frozen her already minimal sense of logical thinking, and the girl had dashed off. Since Alyssa was prone to overreacting, the others didn't seem to think much of the incident. Gilbert had actually doubled over and laughed.

But Arthur recognized when Alyssa felt hurt. He recognized the expression on her face.

And it didn't help that he knew it took strong blows to bring the American to tears.

Kiku also knew, so when her hand started trembling, Arthur had excused themselves and took her to his home. Alyssa was most likely on a rampage, and the only other people she would go to in such circumstances were Matthew or Yong Soo. It was better not to take chances and let Kiku calm down before sending her home.

"Hey! Jerk Arthur! Why are you so late?"

Peter, Arthur's little brother, greeted them with his usual attitude. Arthur waved back with a hand. The boy stuck his tongue out at Arthur, and then smiled when he saw Kiku.

"It's Kiku! Hi Kiku!"

Kiku smiled weakly. "Hello, Peter-kun."

Arthur ushered Kiku in as Peter tried to cling to her. In the living room, Kiku answered the boy's questions and remarks while Arthur started to get some tea ready. He glanced over at his girlfriend. She seemed a little more at peace, thanks to the diversion Peter was creating. Thank God for pesky little brothers.

"Are you fine, Kiku?" Arthur asked after he managed to shoo Peter out and into the boy's room.

"Yes, please don't worry about me. I just hope Aly-chan is not too disappointed." She murmured.

But the fingers that had sent a text message to her eldest brother minutes ago were still shaking. Arthur covered them with his own hand and lowered his head so that their eye levels were equal.

"Love, look at me."

The pet name was a rarely used one, so the effect was immediate. Dark chocolate eyes looked into emerald green ones, and the trembling died down.

"It's Alyssa. She'll be fine. Matthew and Yong Soo can help her out." God help them all if they couldn't. "You make your own choices. Alyssa can't dictate your every move. I'm with you all the way."

_I'll never let anyone hurt you again._

He had promised. And he was going to keep that promise.

"_Arigatou gozaimasu_…"Kiku breathed out as she leant her forehead against his.

Arthur leaned forward, causing Kiku to tilt her head back and scoot a little to make room on the sofa. Their lips made contact, and Arthur smiled into the kiss. Beautiful, wonderful, lovely Honda Kiku.

_His_ Kiku.

"Hey, jerk! Arthur! Can I come out now?"

They pulled apart as Arthur groaned in frustration.

Younger brothers were such a pain in the ass.

* * *

_/ BFF Kimchiburger and fluffy ArthurKiku is totally win, in my opinion XD And any guesses as to why Kiku is suddenly so supportive of Gilbert?_

_So there's a lot of angsty past issues, eh? Not much details yet, but let's just say... These dudes were empires/pirates/conquerors after all. I'm not letting that slide._

_Hyung = Korean for "Older Brother" (or older boys in general; only males use this)_

_Nam-chin = Korean slang for "boyfriend"_

_Gommennasai = Japanese for "I'm sorry"_

_Yosenabe = Japanese broth with various ingredients_

_Kimchi Jjigae = Korean stew made with mainly kimchi_

_Jiaozi = Chinese dumplings_

_Meimei = Chinese for "younger sister"_

_Didi = Chinese for "younger brother"_

_Bruder = German for "brother"_

_Arigatou gozaimasu = Japanese for "Thank you"_

_If you've seen my author's notes on the bottom of chapter 2, I'm still taking suggestions! Reviews really make my day on spur me on, so please give me feedback. It really helps a lot._


	4. Of Only Children, Boys

_The summary for the story was changed, as I found that there is more to the story than simply getting Antonio and Lovino together._

* * *

Antonio Carriedo was delighted.

Scratch that. He was _elated_.

The world seemed so much brighter and happier today. The flowers were all so colorful and fragrant, the sun shone with vigor, and the tomatoes were bright red and ripe. The day was perfection in every single way.

Never mind that there was a thunderstorm practically flooding the entire city right now.

It was Tuesday, and that meant seeing Lovino during the first period. It was perfect.

Even though the black eye Lovino gave him during the lesson hurt a little; it wasn't anything that Antonio couldn't handle.

"You never learn, _mon cher_," was what Francis muttered as Antonio happily nursed the nasty injury.

"_¿qué?____"_

"It means you're a moron, Tonio." Gilbert supplied.

"Sí, but I am Lovi's moron! I think." Antonio was not insulted.

Really, if Gilbert wanted to insult Antonio, there was a multitude of alternate terminology that he could put to use instead. Call him oblivious if you wish, Antonio was not all that dense when it came to deciphering his friends' intentions.

(Though he never really took notice of when Francis started becoming a little too touchy…)

"Damn, the kid has quite a punch though." Gilbert grumbled as he patched up his own bruises and scrapes.

"That is why you don't antagonize him when he has cooking implements in his hands, mon ami. I thought dear Elizaveta taught you that already, _non_?" Francis didn't hide his amusement.

Gilbert muttered, "Not my fault."

Francis rolled his eyes with as much elegance he could muster. "You had it coming! You practically tricked him into your bet. No wonder he was furious."

Was Lovino furious? Really? Antonio didn't really think so. True, Lovino had attempted to beat Gilbert senseless (not surprising nowadays) with such fervor that his face had been all flushed…like a tomato!

That was the comment that had gotten Antonio the black eye in the first place.

But anyways, Lovino didn't really seem as angry as he seemed…embarrassed? Reading Lovino's feelings was not easy, but Antonio tried. Beneath the swearing and violence and antagonistic behavior that dear Lovino always displayed, there was something far more complex and sensitive and emotional. Nobody else knew that, except for a few people. Not many people understood Lovino, which was a little disheartening, but Antonio was fine with that.

Antonio liked being one of the few people who actually knew what Lovino was like.

"Too bad for him!" Gilbert snorted. "He can't back out now."

Really, Gilbert was such a good friend. He had risked a few cracked ribs and a broken arm just for the sake of Antonio and Lovino! Ah, friendship. What a wonderful word.

"Well, he can back out if you fail your attempt at school domination." Francis deadpanned.

"_Nie!_ I'm too awesome to fail something like that. Everyone knows I'm awesome enough to own this school!" Gilbert seemed very confident, which was a good thing for Antonio. "Don't worry, Tonio, you'll have the kid wrapped around your finger in no time!"

"_Gracias_, Gil! _Gracias_!"

Francis seemed to be muttering something about how Antonio was the one wrapped around the other's finger, but Antonio didn't pay much attention. Gilbert chuckled and turned a ruby sharp gaze on the Frenchman.

"You're not chickening out though, right?"

"_Bien sûr non_. This is for the sake of _l'amour_, and for _l'amour_ I shall become Antoine's martyr." Francis purred as he slid over and slipped his arms around Antoine's waist.

Good thing that Francis was such a kindhearted friend as well.

* * *

Good thing that Antonio was as dense as the Great Wall of China.

Francis was quite sure that Gilbert was not the type of person to volunteer and devote himself to such a romantic project without any profit. Considering that he had tricked the older Vargas twin into making the bet, Gilbert's main goal was most likely winning the bet itself: becoming student council president. There was some different, less selfless reason for the matchmaking service provided, Francis was sure. Gilbert could be a little manipulative if he could get his brains to function every once in a while.

Not that Francis was complaining.

Dear Antonio, oblivious as ever, was probably clueless about Gilbert's less than innocent intentions. Just like he was always oblivious of Francis's advances and the very rare occasions when the grumpy Italian boy actually looked at Antonio from across the hallway. Francis recognized the look on Lovino's face on such occasions.

The look that said how much Lovino wanted to give in, just for once, to stop pretending and cry into the Spaniard's shoulder.

Francis knew that look too well.

It wasn't a matter about making the two lovebirds smitten with each other. Oh no, they had already completed that step far long ago (Francis had first noticed during a fateful dress up week when Lovino had openly stared with a red face at an Antonio-with-glasses version). It was a matter of getting the older Vargas to simply admit that he was smitten with the dear Spaniard.

That would be as easy as forcing Arthur to admit that Francis had superior cooking skills over the Brit.

Francis opened the door of his International Relations classroom to find it empty, save for one person. To be more exact, an Englishman who Francis would have been admittedly happy to see (and spread the _l'amour_ to…and it's not molesting, you know) except for the fact that Arthur looked a little unhappy.

To be precise, Arthur seemed downright gloomy. He looked like he was on the verge of contemplating jumping off the school building or some sort of rather devastating matter. It would be the wisest choice to keep his hands off the boy for a while.

Let it be known that Francis never really was known for making wise choices.

"You insufferable git!" Arthur seethed as Francis lay on the floor, clutching at the nose Arthur had very nearly broken when a stray hand had landed on the sour-faced Brit's ass.

"Good to see that you still have some energy in you." Francis hissed behind his hands.

Arthur's laughter was bitter. "Ha! Energy. I'll need as much as I can to ensure that this school isn't utterly destroyed by some blasted twats in the next couple of weeks."

Twats? That was plural, right? Gilbert was probably who Arthur was most troubled about, for sure, but who else to worry about? It was not as if Arthur would believe that any of Gilbert's "helpers" could do some real damage (Ludwig would take care to not let events spiral out of control). So what now?

Unless…

"Now, Arthur," Francis purred, ignoring how one of those huge eyebrows twitched—ugh, it looked like it was alive now—at the mention of his name, "is this about little _Amerique?_"

Seeing by how the other boy's shoulders sagged at the mention of her, Francis was right.

"Don't call her that. It's just boosts her bloody ego." Arthur groaned as he raked a hand through his sandy blonde hair.

"She adores me for it, _mon cher_. Don't deprive her of the title."

Not like Arthur could stop Francis anyways. The nickname had stuck since Alyssa had been in first grade. A pet name that was practically ten years old was not going to disappear that easily.

"Not at a time like this, though." Arthur muttered, lightly kicking Francis in the shin for calling him anything affectionate ("_mon cher_, you break my heart!" "Call me that again, and I'll break a few bones as well.").

Francis rubbed his shin and frowned. "So something has happened yesterday, after our little…incident in the student council room?"

"I took Kiku to my house so we could talk a bit. About the...thing that happened."

Arthur being straightforward without any roundabout insults to Francis meant that something was definitely up. It usually was a gossip-worthy happening, so Francis was all ears.

"Allow me to guess. Little _Amerique_ showed up?"

"How intelligent of you."

"More intelligent than someone who probably took his lady to his home and forgot that he lives next door to the source of his trouble, _non_?"

Arthur flushed. "Look, I didn't forget that she lives next door. I just thought that she'd be at Kiku's house."

"Very well, then what happened?"

"She barged in—and no, she didn't break down the door this time—and said that…that she'd rescue us from the wanker."

It took a few moments to process that.

"From Gilbert?"

"From 'the evil albino alien that invaded poor Kiku's mind and needs a hero to kick its ass' were her exact words, but yes, that would be what she meant." Arthur massaged his temple.

"And how exactly would our little heroine plan to do that?" Francis tried to hide the bemusement in his voice. He failed.

Arthur shot Francis a weary glare. Whatever the American girl had declared must have been a serious drain on Arthur's system. What on earth could she have—

"She's running for student council president as well."

Oh. _Oh_.

Gilbert and Alyssa. (Self-proclaimed) Prussian versus American. It would be quite the match, and probably extremely entertaining.

Hopefully the school would still be standing by the end of it all.

* * *

Hopefully the school would be blasted to smithereens and turned into ash by tomorrow.

Mathias Søren Christensen crumpled up the sheet of paper in his hands and stuffed it into a pocket. Stupid math. He didn't need math. He was cool enough without it. But apparently his math teacher disagreed with him.

Ugh. Mathias scowled. He had an English project to work on and a Biology test coming up. Math was not helping his situation here.

And speaking about that English project…

"Ah shit, Mia is going to kill me."

He was supposed to meet her five minutes ago at the library! And her temper when it came to punctuality…God, even the Vikings would run from her wrath.

Mathias hitched his bag over a shoulder and started to run, hoping like hell that the Norwegian girl wouldn't take too much offense at the tardiness. After thirty seconds of sprinting, he noticed a poster taped to one of the school walls.

"Wait, isn't that Gilbert?"

Why was the albino's picture on the poster? Mathias walked up to the wall for closer inspection. After a few moments of reading and processing, his eyes widened. Seriously?

Without a moment's delay, he snatched the poster off the wall (it wasn't the only one around, he was sure there were more taped up) and resumed the sprint to the library. Maybe, really hopefully maybe, Mia would be distracted by the poster and forgive him for being so late.

Not a chance.

"You idiot, have you no sense of time? I thought you would at least know how to read a clock by now, but I obviously overestimated your abilities."

Face masked with perpetual indifference, Mia Johansen was one of the strongest (and scariest) girls around in the area. Even though her full height barely reached Mathias's shoulders, she could really stare a guy down. Rumor had it that she had even challenged Ivan Braginsky once and had walked away unscathed.

Mathias was the only person who knew that the rumor was actually quite true.

However, this was not the time to be in awe of her temper and those really smooth looking legs (no, he mentally whacked himself, stop ogling your best friend). Making sure that his eyes stayed on the upper part of Mia's body (wait, that shirt looks a little tight…No, stop it, you stupid hormones!), Mathias focused on looking at the cross-shaped barrette in her hair as he quickly shoved the poster into her hands.

"What is this?" Mia looked at the rolled paper before glancing up at him.

"Look for yourself."

She unrolled the poster and started to read it. A thoroughly disgusted look flitted through her facial expression before her usual wear of indifference was back in place. Mathias looked at her expectantly.

"…Well," Mia kept her eyes on the poster as she talked to Mathias, "it seems that Gilbert Beillschmidt wants to run for student council president."

"I know, right? I can't believe it's that time of the year already!" Mathias grinned.

"You don't even have the concept of time in that nonexistent brain of yours." Mia deadpanned.

He was not deterred in the slightest. "Maybe I should run too? I'd be a super cool president, right?"

The question went unanswered. Instead, Mia opted to avoid the suggestion entirely and calmly point something else out. "I think Alyssa Jones is also running for the position."

"Seriously?" He didn't have any classes with the American today, so he hadn't heard any news of the nature yet. Funny, though. Somebody had told him about elections and all that stuff today. He just couldn't quite remember who it was… Something about elections and sisters…

Wait, didn't Alyssa have a brother? Oh yeah, she did! Ma-…Ma, Mark? Something like that. Yeah, he was the one who told Mathias about how his sister was running for student council! Right!

"Ah, come to think about it, I think I heard about it."

"Tina told me today."

Riiiight. Tina was secretary in student council. She'd know about that kind of stuff.

"If Jones and Beillschmidt can do it, I suppose you could to."

Mathias blinked. Had Mia just told him to go ahead and run for president of student council?

Apparently that was exactly what she said. "What are you staring at?"

"Nothing!" He couldn't help but break out into a huge grin. "Yeah, it's about time to kick Berwald out of student council, right?"

"He's the historian. That doesn't have much to do with running for the president."

"I can fire him, can't I? I really hated it when he got to run for student council when I couldn't!" Of course, only upcoming juniors and seniors could run for the positions, so it was natural that Mathias couldn't run when Berwald could. Which just wasn't fair, since he was older than that damn Swede.

"Well, you get to have a turn now." Mia conceded lightly.

"Yeah, I better kick Gilbert in the ass." Because it was the goddamn albino's fault that Mathias ended up skipping a year of school and dropping down a grade.

"I will assure you that I'm not stopping you in this case." Mia carefully folded the paper in half. Her eyes seemed to gleam with…mischief? Something that returned the devious look she used to have a long time ago. It was a look that he missed.

"Join me, Norge!" Mathias yelled, oblivious to the glare that the librarian was sending him from afar.

Mia smirked at the old nickname. "Why not? Beillschmidt has a lesson to learn."

It would be just like old times, when Mathias lead the way and Berwald followed with Tina in tow, when Kaya grudgingly but loyally stuck to the group, when Mia had stood beside him and stayed with him.

This was going to be so fun!

* * *

_/ Francis is mistaken; while Alyssa loves being called little America, she doesn't really like Francis himself. Of course, she doesn't hate him, but well... She knows that he gropes a little too much._

_And the Nordics are here! Mia means "sea of bitterness" while Iceland's name Kaya means "pure". Norway, Iceland, and Finland are all genderflipped. Christensen and Johansen are really common surnames in Denmark/Norway. So many surnames ending with -sen. It was really weird... _

_Anyways, the Nordics also have their own tale regarding their past and the Gilbert influence. Things are starting to get crazy._

_Bien sûr non - French for "Of course not"_


	5. Of Older Sisters

"Well, not that I care one little tiny bit, but I still can't believe that they're doing this to me!"

Victoria Laurinaitis sighed, her fingers deftly tracing the contours of the spiral spine of her notebook as she listened to Alyssa vent her frustrations while their History project slowly faded away from attention.

"Well, I suppose you're frustrated—"

"Damn right I am frustrated!" the Lithuanian flinched at the volume. "Plus I have to see his face all the time after that!"

"Um, it's not really Arthur's fault that he lives next door to you…?"

History was never going to be finished today. Not at this rate.

"But Toria~!"

Alyssa had started to whine, which meant this was going to turn into a very long session of complaints and unheard answers and logic ending up being thrown out the window. Yes, history was out of the question.

Toria—the particular nickname stuck when her youngest brother had been unable to pronounce her full name in his toddler years—was never good at handling people. More specifically, she had never mastered the art of talking logic into people with dominant personalities. Alyssa was one example.

Ivan Braginsky was another.

Born into the richest family in the entire town, with the Christensen family running up as a close second, Ivan Braginsky had been the terror of the neighborhood ever since he had grown old enough to speak coherently…and grip a pipe in a single hand.

Toria and her two brothers had been a rather poor off family, on the opposite end of the spectrum from Ivan, and she never really had to cross paths with him until middle school. Middle school was simply awful. The economy had broken down for the whole country, and their town had suffered consequences. Many people moved away. New people moved in.

The few families that were financially blessed—the Braginsky family, the Christensen lot, the Edelstein folks, the Karpusi household—didn't even suffer the slightest blow. Toria's parents, on the other hand, had been overwhelmed. They worked extra shifts, spent less time home, added an extra odd job or two...

Then they died.

It was during her seventh grade year when Toria's parents, tired from work and too fatigued to realize that their car was not fending too well in the snow, slid off the road and fell into a ditch. They were rescued the next day, but it had been too late.

They had no relatives, since the family had immigrated to America when Toria was a toddler, and the three siblings had nowhere to go.

When the Braginsky family decided to take them in, Toria was grateful.

The first few days were mild enough; no boundaries crossed, nobody angered, everyone was fine. Except there was a problem.

Toria fell in love.

No, not with Ivan (_never_ Ivan). Not with the nice Swiss boy down the road. Not the polite Egyptian boy who she sat next to at school. Not any of the boys in the town. Not a boy at all.

She fell in love with Natalya Arlovskaya, Ivan's own little sister.

That was when Toria realized that she liked girls. It was also when Ivan started dragging her more and more into the alleys. After the economy shattered, many teenagers slunk into the alleyways for the hell of it. The kids around Toria's age were especially gifted in the fighting department, which meant that she had classes with some of the scariest kids in town.

And she lived with the worst one of them all.

"Toria?"

She snapped back to attention.

"Yes?"

"So what I was just saying... uh, what was I saying again? Oh yeah. So I was just coming here fifteen minutes ago, and guess what?"

Toria did not want to guess at all.

"Mathias. Mathias says he's running for president too! This is a conspiracy!"

Mathias Christensen, formerly known as the king of the northern alleys, running for student council president? Oh dear lord, what was going on? First Gilbert Beillschmidt, the German dictator who had pretty much crippled every kid who dared as much as raise their voice against him (not anymore, but the record was not one to be forgotten) in middle school. Then Alyssa, the physically strongest girl in the entire neighborhood. Now Mathias?

Was this school going to stay standing by the end of this?

"—Not that he can stop me, but you know…"

If only Aly knew what a terrifying kid he was! The young Christensen and Mia Johansen had _ruled_ the northern alleys, along with Berwald, the terrifying Swedish boy who lived with sweet Tina. Those people had sent even high school students to tears, and they had been _middle school_ kids back then.

Then again, Aly only moved into the town after Mathias was nearly killed. He had quit fighting after that.

On the other hand, Ivan was still a terror to town. At least Toria had moved out, with her brothers in tow, into her best friend's house, but Ivan still wanted to be friends with her. He thought they should be more than friends.

He though she liked him back!

Hell no.

Toria was not into Ivan Braginsky. She was not into boys. She had even somewhat overcome her crush for Natalya (Heaven forbid Ivan ever found that one out) a year ago.

She had moved on.

"Oh hey, there you are! I was, like, totally looking for you, Tori!"

Felicyta "Feliks" Lucasiewicz, Toria's best friend since diaper years and current host family, had entered the classroom without warning. Decked in pink skirt and checkered blouse, the Pole sauntered over to hug Toria from behind.

"Oh hey Feliks!"

Aly waved with the energy that had started to burst ever since the complaints had started, and Feliks returned the wave with an enthusiastic one of her own, another arm still around Toria's neck. Toria's face burned.

"Oh hey, nice new ring you got there!"

Feliks grinned and flashed the silver band at the American. "Isn't it totally fab?"

"Well, it's sorta less flashy then what you usually wear…But I guess it's pretty."

Toria squirmed and folded her hands in her lap.

She prayed with all her might for Alyssa to not notice that Toria wore an identical ring on her own hand.

* * *

Katyusha prayed with all her might for Ivan to change his mind.

"But, but Vanya…" She faltered a little when he raised an eyebrow. "Isn't…student council a little…strict? You need to meet requirements, don't you?"

He smiled. "My grades are fine. And I am sure my teachers will be kind enough to write for me."

"But, but…Vanya, I'm sure the work will be very hard." She was running out of reasons!

"It's okay, da? I will be fine."

Oh, Katyusha hoped all would be fine. She hoped very much, because while Ivan was such a sweet little brother and a nice boy, others did tend to be a tad bit fearful of him…

Well, that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was that Ivan was going to compete against Gilbert, Alyssa, and Mathias. They were the people he should _not _be getting into any arguments with! Ivan had already been suspended from school for three weeks in middle school when he kidnapped young Tina and hurt Berwald. Then he'd been suspended again when he broke Gilbert's arm, along with a few other bones. Ivan had finally started to be a good student again, meaning that at least he wasn't getting suspended any more, since high school. But what if he got into a fight?

What if any other people tried to hurt him? Ivan could not risk making _отец_ angry again! _отец _had been so angry last time, when Ivan had come back home with blood on his clothes and complaints from a particularly brave teacher, who was soon removed to another city. If _отец _found Ivan getting into a fight again, he might hit Ivan! _отец_'s temper was getting steadily worse these days. Oh, if only _Мать_ was alive…

"Vanya, please take care of yourself." Katyusha pleaded. Her brother had a knack for attracting trouble, and it worried her so much. Then there was Natalya….

Natalya!

"Vanya, does Natalya know this?"

"This?"

"You running for student council president?"

"Ah." That was a no.

"Vanya—"

"Don't worry, Kat! I will make sure she does not make too much trouble, da?"

But Natalya was never one to listen, especially if she thought that she could help Ivan. Natalya loved Ivan after all

…albeit a little too much.

"Make sure of that, please. We don't want _отец_ to be angry with her."

Not that Father ever got angry at Natalya.

He ignored her completely. _отец _treated little Natalya like she was dirt on a carpet: unwanted, annoying, and filthy. It was not Natalya's fault that _мать_ had died giving birth to her, but _отец _acted like it was all Natalya's fault. He hardly even spared her a glance. Katyusha and Ivan had taken care of their baby sister as much as they could, but surely Natalya was lonely?

It really explained why she liked Ivan so much.

"I will, Kat. I will."

He walked away, leaving her with promises of no trouble and a pacified Natalya.

In all honesty, Katyusha could not bring herself to find relief in those words. Ivan and Natalya did have a bad habit of wandering into messes after all, and Ivan had a hard time trying to make Natalya listen these days.

Katyusha missed the times when the house, which was so big and empty and cold nowadays, was a little less empty, with Toria and Eduard and Ravis living with them. _Отец_ had been less strict those days, ever cordial to the young children staying in his home, and Ivan and Natalya had both seemed a little less lonely during those years…

Katyusha walked into something solid.

"Whoa, sorry Katyusha! You alright there, eh?"

Katyusha rubbed her sore nose and looked up into violet eyes and blond hair. For a while, the name escaped her, and all she could do was stare up at him. …Really, what was his name again?

"It's Matthew, Kat."

Oh.

"I'm sorry!" She cringed as if stung, and prepared for a string of apologies when he held up his hands and stopped her before the waterfall of words fell out.

"No worries, eh? I don't mind. I was just looking for Ivan, you know."

A little calmer now, Katyusha craned her head around to check the direction Ivan had walked off in a few minutes ago. He was nowhere in sight.

"He just left, but if it's anything I can tell him, I can tell him at home."

Matthew scratched the back of his beck.

"Well, it's about the hockey team…Since the season is over and all, I was going to ask if he was coming to the post-season party."

Right, Ivan was in the ice hockey team.

"I'll make sure to ask him."

"Thanks. And tell him he needs to keep his cell phone on, eh."

Katyusha nodded. "I will."

"Great! Yong Soo was really hyped up about the party, what with the season record and all."

She was sure she had heard about that sometime ago. "Oh, Vanya said that you had a good season."

"All wins with only two losses, eh. Plus we made it to the semi-finals this year. We'll make the championship next time."

Matthew was such a nice boy. He had revived the ice hockey team, which had no members for a few good years until Matthew came along, and had asked Ivan straight away to join the team. Very few people liked to talk to Vanya, and Katyusha had been overjoyed when Matthew came and asked to see Ivan Braginsky over a year ago.

He was a smart boy too. He had smoothed things over between Berwald and Ivan so that there were no past grudges held (or at least, that's what she hoped), and he never seemed to be in trouble. He always took care of his sister, too. What a sweet boy! And a strong one as well, because Katyusha still remembered how Matthew fought on the ice rink, strong enough to put up with Ivan…

An idea clicked.

"Matthew!"

He jumped a little, since she had suddenly clung to him with newfound strength and desperation.

"Yes?"

"I have a…favor to ask."

She clutched his arm tighter to herself, and for a moment his face seemed to flare up a bit. Was he mad at this sudden request?

"Um…what is it?"

Katyusha tried to give him her most pleading look.

"Could you please look after Vanya?"

He blinked.

"Vanya wants to run for student council president, and I don't want him to get into trouble, please? You could make sure he doesn't get into any fights, and he listens to you, so…Just watch out for him, _Просьба__?_"

Matthew slowly repeated her request, as if reality were slowly dawning upon him.

"You want me to…look after Ivan? ...Wait, president? Him?"

Katyusha nodded vigorously.

"Oh, well…." Matthew's face reddened further as Katyusha tightened her grip slightly. "Okay then. I guess I can do that much."

Heaving a great sigh of relief, Katyusha smiled. "Thank you, Matthew! I really must repay you."

The boy laughed a little awkwardly before shaking his head. "No Kat, I'm fine. Just, er, may I go now?"

Oh. Katyusha released his immediately, feeling a blush make way to her cheeks.

"I'm sorry! Please, don't let me hold you up!"

After Matthew had taken his leave, Katyusha leaned against the corridor wall, glad to have somehow accomplished a task for Ivan's own good.

Hopefully, Ivan would not get into any trouble now.

* * *

Mathias was in trouble big time, and he was going down for it.

Mia scowled, rather regretting her own words from a mere thirty minutes ago, as she walked through the school hallway with a load of papers in her arms.

Stupid, dumb, simpleton Mathias! How dare he leave her behind with the entire project and work to do! Of course, she was the one who had given the go ahead sign to sign up as candidate for student council president, but she hadn't meant for him to run off in an ecstatic state as soon as she agreed to join him. He really should have his head examined.

Well, this was no time to start on a long quest of wondering exactly how idiotic this childhood friend of her was. She had just received a text message from Kaya. Apparently, she needed to be picked up from the school infirmary.

Probably sick again; Kaya was just like their _Mor_, in the aspect that they had innately weak immune systems, making them common recipients of colds or other such diseases. _Mor_, who was too sick to even come home.

She would not let Kaya become like _Mor_.

Mia opened the door to the infirmary. "Kaya?"

Instead of the usual clipped greeting from the school nurse or Kaya's voice, Mia was met with an enthusiastic, loud shout of happiness.

"Ve, she's here!"

Oh great, the Vargas girl.

"We get it, Feli! Stop making such a big fuss about it!"

And the Vargas boy.

Kaya sat on the infirmary bed, shooting Mia a look that plainly read _get me out of here now_. Being stuck between the Vargas twins was like doubling hell, if Kaya's face expression was anything to go by. Then again, Kaya though that _everything_ was annoying, including soggy breakfast waffles. So perhaps it was not that bad.

Not that Mia would ever be willing to take Kaya's place between the two Italians.

"Ve, she had a fever a few minutes ago, but it went down now~. Just make sure she doesn't eat anything too cold today!"

All smiles and cheerfulness, Feliciana Vargas was a rarity in this town, which had started recovering starting from a year ago from the economic crisis. Especially since this particular neighborhood had produced a sufficient amount of hoodlums in the past few years. It was a miracle that a girl like this was alive and well in the midst of such chaos. It probably had something to do with that monster of a German she had wrapped around her finger.

"Thank you, but where is the nurse?"

Vargas (male) decided to answer: "She had to go to the chemistry classroom. Apparently something exploded."

Aha. "I see. Thank you for taking care of my sister."

The female Italian beamed. The male one simply snorted.

"They didn't take care of me." Kaya grumbled, but the comment was overlooked.

The happy Italian leaned down to smile at Kaya, who seemed a little grudging because she wasn't being hauled away from these carriers of the happy virus and the angry virus right this moment.

"Now that your _sorella_ is here, you will be fine, ve?"

A shade of red colored Kaya's cheeks, and Mia held back a smirk. Kaya had always been too independent for her own good and relying on her sister had never sat well with the younger girl.

"Kaya, be polite." Mia (mock) chided her sister. Kaya shot a withering glare at her.

"…Thank you." Kaya looked like she had just chewed some glass.

"Hmph." That was the bad-tempered Italian harrumphing in reply. Not that she or Kaya was offended by the behavior; Lovino Vargas was a known feminist (though his personality prevented him from being as charming as a girl would like him to be) who treated females significantly better than males. The only girls who were on the receiving end of his profanities had been the girls who had bullied Feliciana in middle school, but Mia approved of that. No person who harmed little sisters should expect to escape unscathed.

"Fratello, you're so grumpy today~!"

"Shut up, I'm not."

"Ve, but you are! Is it because of Gilbert's bet?"

The name of the German caught Mia's attention. She listened to the conversation, conveniently ignoring Kaya's increasingly intense look that told her _let's beat it, NOW_.

Lovino scowled. "Stupid potato bastard, thinking that I'd be dumb enough to fall for such a trap!"

"But you did, fratello."

"You're not helping!"

"Ve? But doesn't fratello like Antonio? He is very nice!"

"I don't care about that tomato bastard! Fucking idiot, always smiling and pretending that everything's fine…!"

Where was this conversation going?

"But fratello, Antonio likes fratello very much~. That's why Gilbert is helping, along with Kiku and Arthur and Ludwig and Francis and—"

"It's all a trick! The fucking albino bastard is just messing around because he just needs an excuse to win the elections."

Now _that _was something that sounded very interesting.

"Excuse me."

Both Italians turned to stare at Mia. Kaya groaned and buried her face in her hands, another action that went ignored.

"Could you please explain what you meant by that?"

It was best to have plenty of dirt on the German; who knew when it might come handy?

Mia had made up her mind a long time ago to make Gilbert Beillschmidt pay for what he had done, what he had _dared_ to do to Mathias.

Payback was going to be a bitch.

* * *

_/ Toria's first crush was Natalya, and only Feliks knows this. The two nicknames have stuck since childhood, both courtesy of toddler!Raivis. _

_Yes, Ivan did kidnap Tina to lure Berwald in middle school. Being born in the richest family saved his ass from being expelled, but his father wasn't pleased. And even then Kat thinks Ivan is just a sweet boy..._

_Feli and Lovi are both famous as the medical twins in town. Their parents are a doctor and nurse, so a reasonable amount of bad boys used to visit them for injury treatment._

_Wow, lots of Mathias and Ivan in this story. And here I thought we'd finally get some Spamano action :D But at least Lovi is back, along with Ivan running for president as well... Next chapter, we'll have the BTT back in action, along with a nervous Ludwig and brutal campaigning! I have final exams next week, so we'll see how fast I update..._


	6. Of Younger Brothers

Ivan felt very nervous.

He had promised Kat to tell Natalya about his plans to run for student council president, and he said that he would make sure Natalya didn't do anything too rash.

The problem was that Ivan really didn't think that was a promise he could keep.

Natalya was _Natalya_. She was stubborn and independent, regardless of how many times she professed her lover for him and that they should get married. She did him no harm, since she would usually do anything Ivan asked her to do and she would never raise a finger against him, but…

That didn't change how terrifying she was.

Not that Ivan had much to say about that. He knew that he had a temper that sometimes just, well, slipped a tad bit at some points and that his reputation preceded him, which earned him varying degrees of wariness wherever he went, but he never tried to intimidate the object of his affections. Which was exactly what Natalya did, if even a little unintentionally.

Oh well. She would find out sometime eventually, and he had to keep his promise with Kat. He might as well get it done and over with…

What if she became angry?

Ivan felt a little uneasy at the thought gnawing at the back of his mind. His motivations for running in the elections were none too pure, and he doubted that Natalya would keep a calm façade up when she found out what his end goal was.

Of course, he could just not tell her…?

But she would find out when he won, da? Things would not be pretty when she did.

Consequences, consequences.

"I mean, like, he's totally a jerk, for real. Don't you think so, Tori?"

He had been passing by the student lounge when he heard an overzealous voice from the inside of it, catching his attention in the otherwise silent hallway. It took a few sparse moments for him to place a name to the voice—Felicyta Lucasiewicz—and an extra few seconds for him to realize who the Pole had just addressed.

Toria! His dear, lovely Toria. She was here? Ivan wasted no time in opening the door to the lounge wide open and walking in.

Three sets of eyes stared at him in obvious surprise, and then something quite similar to discomfort. That didn't matter, however, because pretty, pretty Toria sat in her chair looking at him with green, very pretty eyes.

"Toria! I am surprised to see you here. I haven't seen you for so long; where were you? If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you were avoiding me, da?"

Purely delighted to see her, Ivan excitedly approached the Lithuanian, but soon a figure stood between him and his Toria, blocking off his clear view of her and making him frown.

"What are you doing, Alyssa? I can't see Toria very well."

The American did not budge, even though he was sending her one of those smiles he tended to use when someone was in the way of him getting what he wanted. Such a pity that this particular girl never seemed to act the way he wanted her to.

"Back off, commie." Tch, Alyssa Jones was stubborn.

"I have already said this countless times—but your grease-filled brain cells of yours simply do not hold the ability to remember anything of true value does it—but just because I am from Russian descent does not mean I am communist." Ivan inserted some more force into his smile.

"What the hell are you doing on American soil anyways? I swear you're here on a spy mission to blow the White House up. I'll report you to the authorities, creep."

"Sadly, you do not remember the geography of your own pitifully beloved home country, because Washington DC is not in this state. You are not fully American either, da?"

By this point, Toria seemed to be tugging on Alyssa's shirt or something, because she turned her head around and asked "What?" to her. Oh, how Ivan wanted to see Toria as well!

"Aly, it's, uh, it's okay. I can talk to him."

"Wha-? No way, he's evil, and heroes deal with the evil guy."

"No, really…I'm sure Ivan doesn't want to…hurt me, right?"

He could not see Toria, what with Alyssa still standing in front of her, but he was sure that Toria wanted to talk to him. She surely must feel the same way about him as he felt about her.

"Yes, I do not wish to hurt Toria. I only want to talk with her." Ivan abruptly injected into the ongoing conversation, and Alyssa turned back to regard him with suspicious eyes. Why was she so adamant that he was such an unpleasant person? They had even been allies once, and now she treated him like a monster. Such manners!

"Okay." She reluctantly stepped to the side, allowing Ivan to have full view of Toria, with her Polish friend's arms around her neck, sitting to face him.

He would really like to make the Pole step away as well, because he didn't like having people being so intimate with his Toria, but Toria was good friends with Felicyta. She would not be happy if Ivan made her friend go away too. He didn't want Toria to be unhappy.

"Uh, so…What did you want to talk about, Ivan?" Toria seemed a little nervous to ask.

Right, he had wanted to tell her something.

He was not sure of how well this plan was going to work, because unlike his usual plans, this one had been planned a little hastily and maybe even a bit clumsily hatched and improvised upon. He had overheard segments of a conversation today, a conversation Gilbert had been participating in, and he had learned some interesting things from them. Gilbert was always such a one for scheming, wasn't he?

Now, if only Ivan could tweak some of Gilbert's plans to fit his own~

"Ivan?"

Oh dear, he must have spaced out again. He did that too much, especially when he started to think about Gilbert and the day he broke his arm…No, Ivan, focus!

"Sorry, I was thinking of something, _humorous_, for a minute….kolkolkol…."

Alyssa attempted to step back between them, looking a little alarmed. The other two girls also seemed a bit fearful of his demeanor, and Ivan realized that he should stop this other habit as well, the one where he started to laugh a little…emotionally.

"No, it was a harmless, thought. Please let me finish." Ivan smiled again at Alyssa, silently willing her to not step back in.

Besides, _thinking _about breaking someone's bones was harmless, da?

"Uh, sure…" The American glanced back to make sure this was okay, and Toria nodded slowly. Felicyta tightened her grip around the seated member in the classroom.

"Toria," Oh, now that he was going to say it, he felt very embarrassed, "I like you very much, and I would really be happy to spend some more time with you. Like the old days, da?"

Toria seemed to pale at the statement.

"Ah, well, I want to wage a bet with you." Okay, that sounded a little unorganized.

"A bet?"

"Yes!" Maybe he said that a little too quickly or loudly, judging by how she flinched a little. He calmed himself.

"I will run for student council president." Good, he sounded much calmer.

Alyssa's mouth hung open. "What?"

He ignored her. "And if I win, I would like you to become my girlfriend."

Toria and Felicyta both reacted with sharp intakes of breath. Realizing his mistake, Ivan backpedaled quickly. "No, not girlfriend. I mean, a good friend."

Felicyta was the one who responded first. "What do you mean by, like, good friend?"

Oops, he had not thought that through. He blurted out the first thought that came to his head: "Spend time with me regularly."

He did not have the chance to hear Toria's response.

"No way in _hell_. You too? Gilbert, then Mathias, and now you? What's with these lunatics who are trying to take over our school? It's illegal for commie bastards to run in the elections, you Russian creep!"

Alyssa's outburst really hurt his ears.

"It seems your idiocy has ruled you again, but I am not communist. And you are also running for the position." Ivan pointed out.

"That's because I'm the hero trying to save the school from you alien commies, Nazis, Vikings, whatever. I'm so not letting you take over this school, Braginsky."

Ivan allowed himself to smirk.

"Try me, Alyssa Jones."

* * *

Eduard Laurinaitis had no choice about going through the pain he had to go through in his life, so he usually did a good job of pretending it didn't hurt. Even if his arm hurt like hell because of the burns he had etched into his skin at the moment. The nurse was sympathetic, but her unhesitant manner inn wrapping his arm tightly in gauze really cancelled out any gratitude he could feel for her.

"Nasty, man. Sorry you had to get hurt like that da ze." Im Yong Soo commented on the injury. Eduard gave him a half-hearted glare.

"I'll be fine, but the lab report won't be. Now I'll have to collect the data all over again." And it's all your fault, he wanted to add in spitefully, but he refrained from bitching at Yong Soo and sighed instead.

He had never been good at standing up for himself, even in cases where he rightfully should, thanks to those years of horror in the Braginsky household. Plus, Yong Soo was, well, a nice person. Even if he seemed to have ADHD sometimes and had a weird tendency to grope other people. He was the kind of guy that made you feel bad for snapping at him, what with his puppy eyes and drooping curl (sometimes he could swear he saw facial expressions in that damn curl).

Besides, Eduard had a feeling that his irritation with the Korean might be a little biased.

"There you go, all patched up!" The nurse smiled and stood up. "I should get back now."

"Thank you." Eduard felt himself be picked up and set on his feet. Yong Soo grinned at him.

"Say hi to Lovino and Feli for me, Mrs. Vargas!" Yong Soo cheerily called. The Korean glanced over at Eduard with a pointed look.

"You should still get a checkup at the hospital da ze."

Eduard frowned. "I need to collect the data by today to finish the report."

"I can do it for you!"

"No."

"Why not? I'm good at these things da ze. And it's my fault that you got hurt."

"You can pay my hospital bills, if you feel so guilty about it."

Eduard pulled his arms away from the Korean's grasp and walked back to his station. He could spot some burn marks on the desk and floor, but the glass fragments and liquid chemicals had been all cleaned away neatly. Yong Soo had done a good job in a short amount of time.

"The teacher will probably understand if you show him the burn marks."

Eduard decided to admit defeat. "Fine."

He had to go finish compiling the data for the season's stats anyway. He had to get it done before the team party. Tina had definitely lied to him when she said being hockey team manger would be easy.

The door behind Yong Soo opened to reveal a panting Matthew.

"Yong Soo, Eduard! Are you hurt?"

Matthew stepped in, his eyes scanning the two for injuries. Yong Soo scratched the back of his neck and pointed at Eduard. "Only him. I got him injured by accident."

The Canadian was at Eduard's side in an instant. "Are you okay?"

He felt very uncomfortable with all this attention on him. It wasn't like he hadn't been through worse things.

"I'll be fine. It's just some minor burns."

"I was just at the nurse's office, and so were Lovino, Feliciana, Mia, and Kaya…They were all talking about something, and then Mrs. Vargas came in. She said that you two were over here and that there was an explosion, so I just ran over…"

Yong Soo laughed. "No worries, Mattie. I'm fine, and our manager over here will be fine soon enough!"

Eduard sighed as he pushed his laptop into his backpack. Good thing he could use all of his fingers, or else he would have had a hard time squishing it into the already full bag.

Matthew's phone started to ring.

"Huh, oh, hey Aly…Wait, what's wrong?"

Eduard's ears perked up.

"I can't hear you when you're talking like…Oh hey, Toria. Can you tell me where you are? I'll go pick Aly up…Yeah…Oh, Eduard's here too...Okay, is everything all right? …Huh? Oh, yeah, be right there."

Matthew slipped his phone into his pocket and sighed. "Okay, let's move it to the student lounge."

Eduard silently cheered at the prospective of going to meet Alyssa, and with a good reason as well. It was hard to actually be in the same room as her, since he was a freshman and she was a sophomore. The only other times he really got the chance to talk to her alone was during those hockey games, when she came over to cheer for Matthew and Yong Soo.

Eduard was hopelessly in love with Alyssa, and there was no denying it.

He'd had a crush on her ever since she had taken him and his family, Toria and Raivis, out of the Braginsky household, never to come back. She had just taken their hands and marched out, determined and powerful and beautiful.

She was strong. He'd seen her punch a guy so hard that the poor man had sprawled to the ground a good ten feet away. She had watched Ivan break Gilbert Beillschmidt's bones and stopped him from nearly maiming the German for life. She had known how terrifying Ivan could be, but she had still stood up to him and protected them even though she was scared of Ivan.

He never forgot how her hands, trembling and shaking but ever so warm, took them out of that nightmare they had lived in for over two years.

"Hey, Aly! You alive da ze?"

Yong Soo flung the door to the student lounge open, only to be nearly flung out as a blur of gold catapulted into his arms and caused him to stagger backward, choking for air. Eduard felt a twinge of jealousy as he watched Alyssa nuzzle into Yong Soo's chest and mutter incoherent sentences.

"What happened?"

Ever the sensible one, Matthew looked for reason in the other two girls. Feliks rolled her eyes.

"Ivan Braginsky is running for student council president, and he wants to date Tori if he gets the position." Was that a hint of a snarl in her voice? "Oh, like he _wishes_."

Any questions to the Pole's unusual subtle ferocity are erased when Alyssa cried out, her voice muffled by the shirt Yong Soo is wearing, "the commie bastard challenged me! The creep was screaming at me to bring it on, the son of a bitch."

Matthew was chewing on his lip. Nobody noticed except for Eduard.

"Now, now. Language, Aly. Language." Yong Soo rubbed his friend's back soothingly, and Eduard felt another pang of jealousy. "I know, Ivan is freaky da ze. He must have scared you a lot."

"I'm a hero," Eduard could hear the sniffles. Damn his hormones for thinking that even those sounds were cute. "And heroes are not scared of evil commies."

"Yes, but you're a special kind of hero, Aly. It's okay to be scared da ze." Yong Soo had wrapped his arms around her, rocking her to calm her down.

Eduard wondered why Matthew stood there, not doing anything. Matthew was usually supportive of his sister and would have definitely said something to comfort her, but all he did was stare wide-eyed at the floor. Yong Soo was shooting Matthew a look, which probably meant _what the hell are you doing and not saying anything_. Eduard would have said the same thing out loud, but his sister's voice stopped him.

"Eduard, you're hurt!"

Toria walked up to him and gingerly lifted his arm to gauge the damage. Not really possible with all the bandages, but she tried.

"Oh, there was an accident in the lab…"

Eduard trailed off to watch Alyssa finally untangle herself from Yong Soo wiping her eyes and telling him that she was okay. Feliks, who was not very familiar with Yong Soo or Matthew, had retreated behind the door in a weak attempt at concealing herself. Toria looked at his arm, worried and probably trying to determine how much money the treatment would cost.

He wished he could protect them. He wished they could rely on him. He wished he could gain Alyssa's trust. He wished Toria was not so worried all the time.

He needed to prove himself.

Eduard watched Matthew finally go hug his sister, uneasy smile lodged in place and murmuring words of encouragement.

"Speaking of Ivan, did you talk to him about the post-season party?" Yong Soo turned to Matthew, who let go of his sister with a pensive expression on his face.

"Hm? Ah, that. Actually I talked to Katyusha, so she'll tell him to call me."

"Oh good, ask him to give me back my USB, will ya? I swear he's going to steal it one day da ze."

Alyssa giggled, good mood back and at ease. "Your pathetic excuse of a piece of technology? Nobody wants that. What did you have on it anyways, porn?"

"Hey! It's just a little old and the plastic melted a bit, but it works fine! And there's no porn da ze. Kiku deleted all of it."

Matthew choked on air. "What?"

"Just kidding da ze."

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "About the fact that there ever was porn, or that Kiku deleted it?"

As Eduard listened to the conversation, his mind started to formulate a plan.

* * *

Ludwig needed a plan.

His idiot of a brother was, possibly for the first time in his life, taking a very logical method of driving Ludwig crazy.

Sadly, Gilbert and logic did not get along well.

Gilbert had laughed when Francis came with the news about Alyssa joining the candidate list for student council president. The move had been either predictable or nothing worrisome to Gilbert. Ludwig put his money on the latter.

What did prove to be worrisome, however, was the news that Mathias Christensen and Ivan Braginsky had also joined the proverbial race. Ludwig had been given the information from Berwald after school, where they had both coincidentally happened to be walking their dogs. When Ludwig went home and told Gilbert about the update, the result had not been very pretty.

Now, Ludwig just wished he had never told his brother in the first place. Gilbert had alerted Antonio and Francis to an emergency meeting, and now it seemed like both of them would be over for dinner. Mutti and Vati did not seem to mind about the sudden addition of extra company; they were both enthralled to see Gilbert and Ludwig socializing with others. Especially after those chaotic middle school years…

Those middle school years were coming back to bite him in the ass. Mathias and Ivan. Mathias and Ivan. And do not forget Alyssa Jones. Gott, luck was not on his side these days.

He had to stop Gilbert. Or else something awful was going to happen. Ivan had very nearly killed Gilbert two years ago, and this time he might succeed at doing so. Mathias was quite justified if he wanted to maim Gilbert and Ludwig permanently, and it wasn't like Ludwig didn't know how vicious the Dane could be.

Damn his puberty.

And damn his brother as well. Ludwig loved Gilbert, he was his only brother after all, but that didn't change the fact that Gilbert was an idiot. An idiot who sent his brother out to buy ingredients for a ridiculously populated dinner.

Ludwig looked down into the shopping cart and counted the amount of sausages he had put in. It wouldn't hurt to put a few more in, right?

Okay, maybe some more.

Yes, one more should be enough.

Maybe…

"Ludwig?"

Ludwig switched his focus from looking intently at the sausage in his hand to looking at the person who addressed him.

"Hello, Arthur."

"Hello to you as well, and…" Arthur peered into Ludwig's cart, "bloody hell, are you trying to make a statue out of those?"

Ludwig had the decency to blush and attempt to tug his cart away from the Brit's criticizing eyes. He only succeeded in ramming a wheel into his own foot. He hissed in pain as Arthur looked at him with pitying eyes.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Ludwig shot at Arthur, hoping to divert the attention away from his awkward stunt.

"Getting food. What else would I do in a supermarket?" Arthur gestured to the shopping basket he held in his hand, which contained some butter, eggs, and something Ludwig did not really want to identify.

He asked the horrifying question in his mind. "Are you cooking?"

Not quite catching the look of disgust on Ludwig's face, Arthur snorted. "Of course I am, you git. And I know better than to swallow thirty sausages for dinner."

Ludwig would not stand to be insulted by Arthur in the subject of cooking. Never.

But his confidence waned when he looked at his cart and looked at the abundant number of the slabs of pork in there, and Ludwig decided that Arthur had a point. A small one, but a point nevertheless.

He changed topics. "Your family must be happy that you do the cooking."

Vati would occasionally suggest for Ludwig or Gilbert to take up a lesson or two on the subject of culinary arts (which was why they both ended up in Home Economics together, curse his fate). Mutti, though a generous and kind mother, often sent various hints at Gilbert and Ludwig to please learn to cook and eat properly, something other than wurst, though the hints had recently changed into ones that pertained more to Feli than food now…

Arthur frowned. "Not actually, because she won't be back for dinner. Neither will be Peter, since he's sleeping over at Berwald's again."

Ludwig raised an eyebrow at the statement. "What about your father?"

"I don't have one."

Shit. Ludwig mentally kicked himself for his thickness.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Arthur just shrugged it off. "I'm used to it."

Now they both just stood there awkwardly, not saying anything or moving at all. Ludwig mentally took stock of the money he had been given to buy the ingredients and how much more food they would need. This was not what he had planned, but, oh well.

"Would you like to have dinner with us?"

Arthur stared at him.

"I mean," Ludwig struggled to keep his composure in check, "Francis and Antonio are eating with our family, so it won't really matter if we have an extra person."

Feliciana must be rubbing off on him. That must be it. There was no way he had just invited Arthur Kirkland to dinner.

"No need to pity me." Arthur defended himself, gripping his basket a tad too tightly.

It was not pity. It was just something Feli had told him a long time ago, when she had found Ludwig beaten and tattered on the street and brought him to her home.

Nobody likes to eat alone.

Ludwig casually walked to Arthur and snatched the basket from the shorter boy's reach. Good thing that he had a physical advantage over the other boy, or else Arthur's glare would have reduced him to a crumbling pile of ash or something pathetic along those lines.

"Come have dinner with us. I would like you to."

Arthur flushed, a blush fighting its way over his cheeks and reaching his ears. He shoved his hands down his jean pockets and grumbled something that sounded like an okay.

After the shopping was done, Ludwig and Arthur both held a large bag of purchased ingredients and trudged towards the home.

By the time they were there, Francis and Antonio were both aiding Gilbert in some sort of video game in the living room while Mutti greeted them and ushered them in. She was delighted to meet a new friend (Arthur had managed to resist snorting at the term, while Gilbert poorly concealed a gagging sound at the idea of it).

Mutti made quick assessment of the ingredients ("I told you to stop buying so much wurst!") and set off to work. Ludwig joined the others in the living room as Arthur just stood there, unsure of where to sit.

"Resident Evil 4, I see." Arthur mused. "You really haven't grown up, wanker."

"Shut up, Artie."

"Arthur, why don't you sit by me?" Francis slyly extended an invitation to sit on the bare floor next to him. Arthur quirked an eyebrow.

"I'd rather go die," he remarked dryly.

Ludwig silently agreed.

"Hola, Arthur! You could sit here if you want."

Arthur accepted the suggestion ("Mon cher, how could you cheat on me like this?" "Can it, frog.") and sat down, his eyes following the movements on the screen. Ludwig hoped that nobody brought up the incident when Arthur had practically demolished Antonio's gang—the Armada, or whatever name it was—several years ago. It was the one thing that really could start a fight between the two.

"Now then," Gilbert finally saved the game and turned the TV monitor off to face the others, "we should start our awesome meeting!"

Damn, he had really been hoping Gilbert would forget about that.

"And West brought along Artie too. Sweet!" His brother rubbed his hands in a conniving manner that made Ludwig want to run to his room and lock the door. He sincerely regretted agreeing to this stupid plan.

Of course, Ludwig only said he would do it because Feliciana had just looked at him pleadingly, eyes wide and hands clasped together and…

That Italian was going to be the death of him.

"So, we first have to make sure everyone sees the campaigns and all…Everyone! We gotta catch their eye, you know. Other than posters and all that bullshit, any ideas?"

Antonio piped up, "We could give everyone tomatoes! Then they'd remember you, right?"

"That sounds awesome! Actually, we should give out beer too!"

Where would they get enough tomatoes to give to the entire school? And they were underage; how would they get the alcohol?

Francis grinned. "If attention is what we need, we could always dress up a little…deliciously."

Ludwig did not miss the wink Francis sent Arthur.

His only hope was Arthur. Gilbert never listened to Ludwig, so Arthur was his best bet at creating a sense of sanity in here. Ludwig looked at Arthur with a rather strained look.

"How about we hang the frog upside down? It will certainly be eye-catching." Arthur sent a murderous glare at Francis, to the despair of Ludwig. Of course Arthur was not one to maintain sanity around Francis.

"Wait, how about Kiku and Feli advertise you during lunch time? They're cute, so people will notice!" Antonio clapped his hands together.

Arthur sent Antonio a look that had even Ludwig shiver under the intensity of it.

"You try to leave Kiku out of this," Arthur hissed.

Antonio shrunk behind Gilbert and nodded wildly. Ludwig wished Arthur could just turn that glare on Gilbert and make the entire fiasco come to an end.

"Aw, come on, Artie. She's the one who agreed to help me out, isn't she?" Gilbert grinned.

Right, Gilbert never listened to anyone.

Arthur sighed. "Fine. You need a plan? I'll give you a plan."

Then, seemingly whipping out a blank notebook and a pencil from out of nowhere, Arthur started to write down tactics for the upcoming campaign war. Ludwig groaned and gave up, toppling over to the side and burying his face into a nearby cushion.

This was all because Arthur always complied to Kiku's wishes. What happened to the Arthur Kirkland who whipped everyone's asses and sent many hoodlums crawling back home, begging for mercy?

(But Ludwig and Gilbert were the ones who had broken Arthur.)

Feeling a wave of guilt come wash over him, Ludwig buried his face deeper into the cushion.

It was not like he had much to say about Arthur's submissiveness now.

Ludwig knew that he would end up accompanying his wild, idiotic brother throughout the entire time, and not only because of Feli.

It was because part of him wanted to see his brother truly happy again.

* * *

_/ This one took so long to come out. And I don't have much of an excuse for that. I'm sorry to anyone who waited for me!_

_Wow, Eduard came out so much differently from what I was going to do. And I was going to write way more about Antonio, but Ludwig talked a lot more about Arthur instead...Oh dear, where is Spamano?_

_Yes, Aly was there when Ivan beat up Gilbert, and she stopped Ivan because she thought he was going to kill the poor dude. That was when Aly started to really get freaked out by Ivan. It's sorta an analogy to WW2, where Aly and Ivan are the Allies while Gilbert and Ludwig are the Axis. A lot of their backstreet history coincides with events from the actual nation history (such as Russia taking Finland-Ivan kidnapping Tina). I'll write that someday..._

_A lot of people are asking to see RussAme, and while I think they'd be cute, their current state makes it a little iffy. Ivan likes Toria, and Alyssa freaks out around him (but she never shows it to him). I'm not making any promises about future pairings, so just keep on watching and see where things head. Don't flame me if things don't turn out the way you want them to. _

_Forgive me for any typos. I'm so tired right now... _


	7. Of Only Children, Girls

Felicyta Lucasiewicz was by no means a girl to let someone take what was rightfully hers.

After dinner, Eduard had made a beeline for the bedroom he and Raivis shared, presumably to do homework like the nerd he was. Toria automatically turned on the tap in the sink, donning the rubber gloves to wash the dishes. Raivis had seemed like he was about to help, but Feliks shooed him out of the kitchen, and the boy retreated to the living room so he could stay out of everyone's way and watch TV.

Feliks approached the sink, a sigh escaping her lips as she sidled up next to Toria and rested her chin on the other's shoulder. She watched Toria start to expertly and methodically rinse the dishes, lathering each item with a generous amount of the dishwashing liquid and bubbles at a leisurely pace.

"Are you only going to watch?"

Feliks pouted and wrapped her arms around Toria's waist.

"Dishes are, like, so totally boring. Besides, I don't want to ruin my new nails."

Though she couldn't see anything from where she was, Feliks could somehow tell that Toria was rolling her eyes right now.

"Dry the dishes, Feliks."

Good. This was a little more like the Toria she liked.

The dishes didn't take long. Toria peeled off the gloves while Feliks rubbed the last few articles into a dry state, pink nails flashing against white porcelain. As soon as the last dish was stacked away in the cabinets, Feliks took one of Toria's hands in her own and frowned.

"You sure you're not getting eh, esesma? Whatever that is?"

"Eczema." Toria corrected. Then she added, "I don't think so."

"Hmph."

Feliks pulled Toria's hand for a closer examination, then smirked. With a flick of her tongue, Feliks licked the tip of Toria's middle finger and elicited a small gasp. Toria jerked her hand away and flashed Feliks a look.

"What if Raivis sees?" Toria whispered with a furious blush on her cheeks. She looked very cute whenever she did that.

"Oh babe, I bet you he won't~" Feliks shot back, smile stretching across her face mischievously.

Now, Toria was cute when she was all flustered and fretful like that, but stressing the poor thing out was an unhealthy habit. Feliks chuckled and tugged Toria to their shared bedroom, locking the door behind them. Not that Eduard or Raivis would ever dare enter or open the door without giving fair warning, but it was better safe than sorry. At least, that was what Toria adamantly argued every time.

"Aw, Tori darling, don't be so cold to me."

Feliks sat down next to Toria, who had settled down on her own bed—Feliks personally thought light blue was fine, but forest green blankets would have been so much better to match with Tori's lovely eyes—next to the bright magenta bed that clearly belonged to Feliks herself.

Now, if only she could coax Tori into pushing their beds flush against each other so they could cuddle at night…

"Feliks, we really have to watch out in public."

"Like, nobody is going to really think much of what we do in public, as long as it isn't too inappropriate." Feliks shrugged.

"They could think the wrong things!" Toria now sounded genuinely worried.

Feliks felt a frown form on her face. "Tori, babe. You're my _girlfriend_."

"I know." Toria looked down, fingering the light blue covers and staring at the fabric with that face expression she always had when she knew she should say something more but couldn't find the words to say so.

Silence ate away the ticking sounds of the alarm clock on the desk, leaving the two girls facing each other on the bed, both unsure of what to say now.

Feliks cleared her throat.

"Are you…Are you ashamed?"

When her girlfriend looked up with a look of pure horror at the very idea, Feliks felt herself release a silent sigh of relief she had not know she had been holding.

"No, Feliks. _Never_. I love you."

Victoria Laurinaitis had been her best friend since kindergarten, and Feliks had stuck with her through better and worse. Toria had always been a goody two shoes, and the idea of being a lesbian had nearly traumatized the girl. Feliks had been fine with it, and had supported her friend whenever she needed it.

When Feliks finally realized that she was totally in love with her best friend, Toria had finally been adjusting to living in her house. After escaping that nightmare of the Braginsky household, Feliks and her parents had talked over about having the three siblings live in their house. Feliks's father worked and practically lived overseas, and Feliks's mother wasn't at home often either. Both parents agreed that it would be good for Feliks to have someone to live with, and they liked Toria immensely.

She had asked Toria to date her, and they had spent an awkward number of months skirting around the subject, unsure of the boundary between friendship and love. When Toria had finally consented to become her girlfriend, Feliks had decided that she would never let anyone hurt Tori or herself again (those days with the Beillschmidt brothers were too awful to even think about).

The one problem was that they couldn't quite tell anyone about their dating status yet.

It wasn't like Feliks was completely oblivious; she knew that the world was unfair and that some people would not be able to accept same-sex relationships. Even though Elizaveta had done a thorough job of clonking people on the head if they showed too much negative bias against gay guys, the prejudice against lesbians was never challenged.

Feliks wanted Toria to be happy, so she had agreed to not inform anyone of their special relationship.

Not even their families.

Toria did not want her brothers to undergo any embarrassment because their older sister was not what the world approved of.

Feliks understood that. She knew it would not be easy on them if the world knew.

It was not easy to hide it either.

"Then why can we not tell anyone else that we totally love each other?" Feliks asked wearily.

Toria's face scrunched up into a frown, and Feliks immediately wished she had not said that. It was not Toria's fault that society's norms was such a prissy bitch, and Toria did not look good at all with such a look on her face.

Feliks clicked her tongue and pressed a finger to Toria's forehead, smoothing out the wrinkles forming there.

"Tori, honey, you gotta, like, stop doing that or you'll grow old fast."

Toria sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's totally Ivan's fault, so don't you be sorry about what he did."

Feliks reached over and pinched Toria's cheeks, stretching them to form a smile on her girlfriend's face. Yep, Toria was pretty. And sweet. And super nice. Ivan had good standards, but nope, he was out of luck.

"I'll never let him even lay a finger on you. You don't have to go near him."

Feliks did not let go of what was hers, and that was a rule.

* * *

Tina Väinämöinen was wondering whatever on earth happened to all the rules in the house.

Peter was sleeping over again, which was fine, really, and he was sleeping in Berwald's room, which was also fine. What was _not _fine, however, was…

"Peter, no. You are not allowed to sleep with Hanatamago."

It happened every time Peter came over—which was pretty much at least three times a week—to sleep in Berwald's room: Peter begged to have Hanatamago cuddle with him in under the covers, and Tina would sternly tell him that no, he could not sleep with the dog and that was that.

Berwald soundlessly appeared by the doorway, stoic face hinting at something akin to amusement.

"Pet'r, y' got t' go br'sh y'r teeth."

Peter, one of the few miraculous kids who understood every word Berwald said, pouted and headed to the bathroom at the other end of the hall. Tina rolled her eyes in mock exasperation and smiled.

"Fin."

Tina blinked. "Yes?"

Berwald held up a small electronic device that was blinking, indicating that a text message had arrived.

"Oh," Tina looked down at her hands that were full with the extra blankets for Peter to use, "uh, could you wait a sec—"

Before she was even done talking, Berwald easily took the blankets and held the phone out for Tina to take.

"Thanks, Sve. You don't have to do that though…"

"M' j'b. F'r m' w'fe."

Tina felt a blush creep along her cheeks as Berwald walked out, taking her chore with him.

She had heard those words since third grade. Ever since she had moved to the neighborhood and met Berwald and Mathias, they had hung out together with Mia and Kaya. They had stuck together when they had been oblivious middle school students, back in the alleys with no enemy to outmatch Danmark, Norge, and Sverige.

Tina read the text message and snapped her phone shut, pausing to look at the sticker photo of the five of them, _Nordic 5_ written into the corner. She had enjoyed those days.

Until Ivan.

After that, Berwald and Tina didn't join the other three in the alleyways anymore. Berwald had even moved out of his house, leaving Mathias alone in the giant mansion, to come live with Tina and her father.

Tina had always felt bad about that. Especially after Mathias had been hospitalized because the German gang had caught him by himself after Berwald left.

Well, Mathias had not seemed very bothered when he had barged into the student council room earlier, announcing that he would sign up for student council president candidate. He had seemed quite happy about the entire affair.

Berwald did not seem so enthralled about the idea.

Not that it really mattered, because Tina and Berwald did not plan to sign up for student council positions for their senior year. They had been through enough to be sure that they did not want to work another year.

The mutual agreement was strengthened when Ivan came in later to also sign up as a candidate.

Well, sign up was definitely over. Nobody in their right mind was going to sign up for that position after seeing those four terrifying names up there on the list. Tina mildly lost hope for her last year in high school. The school would never function normally next year.

It wasn't that Ivan was unbearable now. After Berwald and Ivan had become players on the school ice hockey team, Tina had signed up as team manager and had somehow gotten used to being in the same room as Ivan. This year, she had found that the school hockey team and the league that it played in did not specify gender limitations on the team roster, so she had promptly joined the team as a player (so what if it didn't match her image? She could still stand her own against Matthew). So did Natalya.

Before leaving the manager seat empty, Tina had successfully egged Eduard into working for the position. The job fitted him nicely, she thought. They had somehow been good friends despite their two years' worth of difference in ages since she had been kidnapped to Ivan's home, and now they all worked somehow with Ivan on the team.

Speaking about hockey…

"Sve!" Tina popped her head around corner to look into the living room, where Berwald was humoring Peter at a video game. He looked up, allowing his virtual cart crash into a obstacle.

"Our team party is next week Wednesday. Are you good with that?"

Berwald nodded.

"Okay. I'm going up to my room now. Good night, you two!" Tina waved.

Peter answered audibly as he swerved his cart narrowly around a mushroom. Berwald grunted in response. Tina tip toed past her father's room—thank goodness he was a heavy sleeper, even if the video game was muted—and into her own, which was the farthest away at the end of the hall.

She was just finishing packing her bag for tomorrow when her phone rang.

She flipped the phone open. "Yes, this is Tina."

"Hey," a familiar voice greeted her, "could you come on Skype?"

Tina shifted the phone to her left hand as she clicked her computer back to life. "Sure, just wait."

The window opened, and soon she was sending the call over. She shoved her phone into her pajama pocket as the call was accepted and Eduard's face popped up on the monitor. Tina slipped her earphones in.

"Is it urgent?"

Eduard whispered back, maybe because Raivis was in the room or something. "I guess you could say that."

Okay, if Eduard said it was urgent, something was up.

"It's, well," Eduard hesitated, "you know that Ivan is running for student council?"

"Yes." Tina rummaged her desk drawer for that snack she had crammed in there a few days ago. She was so sure it was there…

Aha, there it was. Tina opened the wrapper and popped the candy into her mouth.

"He said that if he becomes president, he wants my sister to date him."

Caught unawares, Tina nearly swallowed the candy whole and choked violently. Eduard, on the other end of the screen, asked her if she was okay, and she held up a hand to show that she would survive as she coughed away a near-death experience.

After the coughing died down, Eduard tentatively asked if she wanted to talk another time. Tina slowly shook her head, clearing up her airway and head in the process.

"So he wants to make Toria his…girlfriend?" More like a lamb of sacrifice.

Even if she could somehow endure Ivan's antics and interacted with him on a regular basis on the team, the fact that Ivan was terrifying and creepy was the unchangeable rule. It was practically one of those Ten Commandments: _thou shalt be creeped the hell out by Ivan Braginsky no matter what the circumstances._

Poor Toria.

"I think so." A beat. "Tina, w-would Alyssa hate me if I…I did something bad?"

If it were any other time, Tina would have immediately cooed to Eduard how cute he was when he stammered every time he mentioned his crush. He was shy, except when they were together because they knew what party animals they could be, and Tina was personally proud to be the only person to know who Eduard really liked.

"Well…that depends on what you do and who it harms, I guess." Tina replied thoughtfully.

"Like, if I did something…" Eduard took a deep breath. "To Ivan?"

Huh. That was interesting. Eduard never was a confrontational type; more like a passive aggressive boy. He wasn't rash either, so he wouldn't put himself at risk…

"What do you have in mind?"

Well, there was some debt to repay, right?

* * *

Elizaveta Héderváry was a girl who liked to have others in her debt.

However, she was now in a dilemma, because she now found herself in a situation where the tables were turned. She was in the cafeteria for lunch, waiting for a certain text message to arrive, and she was debating if she should simply make a last minute ditch effort and leave before she had to witness something she'd rather not see.

It was all because of stupid Gilbert-who-kept-arguing-that-he-was-Prussian-even-though-he-was-so-damn-German-and-nothing-else. When she had heard of his plans to run for Roderich's position in student council (Roderich seemed eager to retire, through Elizaveta was not sure exactly why), she had been ready to beat his nearly nonexistent albino brains out of that underdeveloped head of his.

That's when Gilbert told her, _if you help the awesome me and hand over the school, I'll fill you in on everything about Tonio and the Lovino kid, and if I don't get the school, they don't get to date. Get it, you Hungarian devil?_

He was selling over the privacy of his friend, _his best friend_, and the friend's love life over to her just so he could win the election! How dirty was that?

But Elizaveta had been unable to turn down the offer.

Well duh, Lovino was so obviously going _tsundere_—the terminology was something she learned from Kiku sometime ago—on sweet old Antonio, who was very obviously in love with the Italian. Spanish and Italian. That was _hot_. God, they would be such a perfect couple, and all Elizaveta wanted was a few pictures of the two together, but damn it all, it was so hard to see them in the same frame without Lovino turning homicidal somewhat.

Stupid Gilbert, knowing exactly what to bait her with! Now Elizaveta could not force herself to go stop the idiocy that Gilbert was feeding the entire school, not when the relationship of a potentially sexy couple's relationship was at stake!

"Eliza? Hel-lo, Elizaveta? You hear me?" A hand waved in from of her face.

Oh, oops. Elizaveta flashed a smile at her friend. "Sorry, Belle. You were saying…?"

The Belgian girl waved her fork as she talked. "You see, I've lived next door to Antonio for all my life, and this is the first time I've seen him so giddy. He seems like he could light up a few megawatts worth of light bulbs."

That was presumably because of the prospect of dating Lovino, Elizaveta surmised. It was no secret that Antonio was smitten with the Vargas twins, specifically the male counterpart.

Belle continued. "And he usually doesn't keep secrets, but this time he just asked us to sit here for lunch and wait for a text message. He wouldn't tell me what was going to happen and that was a _first_. All he said was that it's for Gilbert."

Which was exactly why Elizaveta really did not want to stay here, for whatever embarrassing feat Gilbert was preparing.

Her chance for escape slipped through her fingers as her phone vibrated.

Swallowing her apprehension, Elizaveta checked the text message.

_Make sure you take a good video of this_

Was that why he told her to bring her camera? Elizaveta fished out her video camera and turned it on, unsure of when to start the recording. Where on earth was the idiot? And why were Kiku and Feliciana suddenly dragging Lovino over to her table?

"Hello, Elizaveta-san." Kiku, polite as ever, bowed shortly before she stepped away for Feli to seat Lovino down on the chair next to Elizaveta's.

What was happening?

"Fels! What's going on? Antonio won't tell me a thing!" Belle reached over to hug Feli first, then released the cute thing so that Elizaveta could fawn over her. Feli was so cute!

Well, Lovino was cute, in his own way. Like right now, when he was fuming but really couldn't yell at any of the girls. He'd always been good to the female gender, which was why Belle fearlessly enveloped him in a greeting hug, ignoring the splutters from the boy.

Aww, so cute! Now if only he could do that with Antonio…

As if just on cue, the door to the cafeteria opened with a bang. Elizaveta instinctively reached for her camera as everyone turned their heads mid-meal to stare at the incoming members.

Out of the corner of her eye, Elizaveta saw Matthew Williams drop his fork, and Im Yong Soo stop talking mid-sentence to gape. Alyssa Jones, who had been eating with them, spat out what had been in her mouth and quickly snatched a paper napkin on the table to clean up the mess.

Even Ivan Braginsky was looking surprised, his fork halfway up in the air in the position he had froze in.

Kiku seemed to be suppressing a giggle; Feli was failing at the suppressing part.

Elizaveta did not have to look to confirm that Lovino was blushing.

"…Holy shit," she heard someone with an unmistakably obvious Danish accent mutter. She wholeheartedly agreed with the statement.

"…Er, Elizaveta?"

She turned her body halfway towards Belle, eyes never leaving the scene, as she whispered all too weakly, "yes?"

"I think your nose is bleeding…"

* * *

_/ Cliffhanger! lolz, so what do you think everyone in the cafeteria is seeing(or more like, what do you think Gilbert and gang are going to pull off)? If anyone guesses correctly, I will write you a oneshot of your choice, pairing and prompt all up to you. Don't guess too vaguely though! Hint: whatever is happening is planned by ARTHUR (remember last chapter when he took charge?), so think about it. First person (if more multiple people guess it correctly) to guess right wins the free oneshot! One guess per person only._

_Yep, the Nordics are all nicknamed as nations. Berwald is half Danish and half Swedish, but since Mathias is Danmark, Berwald took Sverige. Kaya is not genuinely Icelandic, but her cold attitude awarded her the nickname Ísland. Mia is Norge, and Tina is Finland. Tina calls Berwald Sve instead of Su-san, since there is no reason for her to use Japanese (Kiku's family moved in when she was in middle school)._

_I promised to put this up yesterday, but I lost my credit card and all that shit, so I apologize for going overtime. _

_I changed the summary. Again. I'm such a fickle person. :D_


	8. Of Twin Brothers, again

_**A/N: **I do not mean any offense to anyone with my summary of this fanfic. If anyone has been offended by the words I have chosen to use in my summary, I apologize greatly. However, I have used those terms specifically because those political terms do relate to everyone's past and motivations that drive them through this story. So if you dislike the summary, I am sorry._

_Also, there are some religious references made from this chapter to probably the end of the fic. I do not believe it is offensive, and as a Christian myself, I do not intend to antagonize any believers out there. _

* * *

Holy fucking Christ. Matthew's eyes had suddenly glued themselves to Gilbert, who was standing with Arthur, Antonio, Francis, and even Ludwig in tow. However, his eyes were mostly stuck to Gilbert, because Gilbert was suddenly not the Gilbert who wore a random hoodie along with his torn jeans with worn out sneakers to go along with it, unevenly brushed hair jutting out all the time.

No, this Gilbert's hair was in that tousled "I got laid and I'm not afraid to get more" look, styled just like a celebrity's (probably Francis did that; the only people in this school who had such skills were Francis or Feliks…or Kiku…), and he was wearing black leather.

Black, skin-tight, leather.

Decked out in a leather jacket and a tight flannel shirt underneath, with leather pants and laced up black boots, Iron Cross flashing in the light and chains dangling from his hips, Gilbert Beillschmidt looked like what awesomeness was meant to be. Maybe it was because he was albino, but the look fit him.

"Hey there, ladies and gentlemen! Hope you're having an awesome lunch there, especially since the awesome me is here to make your day more awesome!"

Gilbert was waving his hand to the silent students in the cafeteria, cheery smile unwavering even as Arthur elbowed him in the side when the usage of the word "awesome" became one too many.

Oh, now that Matthew could finally rip his eyes off Gilbert, he noticed that the other members looked very nearly every inch as damn nice as the albino.

Arthur was wearing ear piercings (oh God, how many did he have?) and a choker, with a tight navy blue punk shirt, ripped and rugged, suiting his figure nicely. His black jeans were tight, showcasing his nice figure very well. Unlike the usual strands that stuck out at random directions, Arthur's hair had been spiked very deliberately into an admittedly handsome style (also by Francis, Matthew supposed). His converse shoes were the same color as his shirt, and Matthew could have sworn it was the first time he ever saw Arthur wear that brand.

He also could have sworn that several girls and boys were staring at that nice ass (no, Matthew is not into Arthur; he simply knows how to appreciate the good things in life).

Francis was wearing a tight purple v-neck shirt, loose leather jacket hanging snugly on his body. He was also wearing leather pants, though they did not seem as tight as Gilbert's and his shoes were definitely expensive dress shoes of some sort. His hair was tied back into a ponytail, and a single chain necklace adorned his otherwise bare neck.

Antonio was also a work of art, judging by how Lovino was starting to look like he was going to have a heart attack.

The Spaniard's brown locks had been brushed messily down, hanging a bit in his eyes, and a crisp white dress shirt was unbuttoned down a good three buttons or so, exposing a fair amount of toned chest and a glinting small silver cross hanging on his neck. The shirt was not too tight, and complemented the black leather pants nicely. An unbuttoned black vest (was that leather too? Where did they get those things?) hung on Antonio's shoulders as well.

Matthew was so sure some of the girls over there were drooling.

Ludwig, who seemed embarrassed by the entire ordeal and was attempting to hide his body behind the others, was definitely out of his comfort zone. Unless Ludwig was into wearing tight leather tops that exposed a good part of his chest and biceps along with leather pants complete with straps and buckles, a leather cap placed over the usual hairstyle, then Ludwig was very much far from his comfort zone.

Not that Matthew was jealous, just because he had been mistaken for his sister earlier during a chaotic dress up week the first semester and not even Lovino or Yong Soo had recognized him at the time…

Damn, he had not just felt his masculinity die a little.

"So, we want to give you something awesome to get you going with your day."

Only when Gilbert hoisted something onto his shoulder did Matthew realize that they were holding black cases.

Guitar cases.

"Don't worry, we made sure to set it up so that we don't blast you ears out with my awesomeness!" Gilbert assured the audience as they all made their way to a corner in the cafeteria, which had been cleared recently to install a few vending machines, and flung off the white fabric that had been concealing a shiny set of drums and a keyboard there. Oh god, they even had speakers.

Were they seriously…?

The truth sank in as two electric guitars and a bass were hooked up to the speakers, while Ludwig adjusted the drums into the right positions. Nobody at the tables talked, too awestruck or dumbstruck to speak.

When Arthur had helped Antonio set up his bass, and Francis sent an okay sign from behind the keyboard, Gilbert tapped into the sole microphone in the entire area. Arthur plucked a few notes from his guitar and nodded, allowing Gilbert to grin widely.

"Well, folks. Enjoy!"

With those words said, Gilbert adjusted his guitar strap and Ludwig merely sighed, tapping his drumsticks together.

One. Two. Three.

When Gilbert started singing, Matthew realized that the elections were going to be much more competitive than he had ever expected.

* * *

This was beyond what Lovino had expected.

When Feli and Kiku had pushed him into this seat, in a weird corner near some even weirder, white fabric covered shit, he had thought that something like a trap was coming.

Well, it _was_ a trap.

It trapped Lovino so damn good that he couldn't find a fucking way to get out of it. All Antonio was doing was plucking on those bass strings every ten seconds or something. Even the albino bastard and potato bastard were more productive than that. The singing wasn't all too bad, and the drums didn't compel him to throw a tomato or two at the damn potato head.

But Antonio, the lazy bastard who probably learned to use that instrument a fucking five minutes yesterday or something, was looking straight at Lovino, and it was fucking attracti—no, it was annoying as hell. He was totally staring at Lovino with this intense look in his eyes, and it really made Lovino want to go kiss, er, _kill_ him. Yeah. Because that kind of staring was like issuing a challenge or something, right?

"Ve~, Ludwig is so handsome! And so is Antonio! Fratello, don't you think so too?"

Hell yes.

Lovino promptly shot down the answer that had been on the tip of his tongue and floundered for a moment, at a loss of what to say. He eventually settled for a more neutral, condescending approach.

"They're exposing an inappropriate amount of skin and muscles just to show off. Don't look, Feli."

Feli frowned. "But fratello is looking at them a lot. Why not me?"

"I'm a guy!"

He felt Belle put her arm around his shoulders as she squeezed him momentarily, body shaking with laughter. Lovino meekly attempted to shove off the touch, but Belle was uncannily good at coercing him into things he'd rather not do, ever since what, second grade? And so was Feli, and Elizaveta, and Kiku, and sometimes that annoying Polish girl, and…

Well, he was a ladies' man. It wasn't his fault.

No, he was not a wimp.

"Aw, c'mon, Fels. Everyone's staring, and it's probably because nobody knew Gilbert could sing decently. I mean, he sings pretty darn well, don't you agree, Eliza?" Belle laughed.

The addressed Hungarian frowned, bleeding nose staunched by a paper napkin held in one hand while the other held the video camera.

"Hmm, my eardrums aren't bleeding right now, so it's not as terrible as I though." She admitted.

Yeah, that was why Lovino was staring. He never thought that Anotnio could actually look so damn hot—no, he meant, um, well….

Damn it all.

"Well, isn't Antonio just so cute?" Elizaveta switched her focus and cooed. "Lovino, you really need to snag him before one of those girls who're positively drooling over there go throw herself over him."

That statement finally made Lovino snap out of the impromptu staring competition that had been going on between him and Antonio for a while, and he looked over at several standing members—girls, mostly—that had crowded over to this side of the cafeteria to watch the performance. Had Lovino not been sitting in the prime seat up close to this temporary stage, he would have barely been able to see with the hoard of girls crowding around.

Girls, who were whispering excitedly and taking pictures with their phones and squealing…and occasionally glancing at Lovino when they noticed where the Spaniard's eyes were resting.

Lovino suddenly felt self-conscious.

Here was with the Spanish bastard, looking at him with a really heated look in his eyes and tanned skin revealed to the public for all to see and compliment, hair staring to stick to his forehead and neck as he sweated, and just fucking good looking.

And here was Lovino Vargas, who couldn't cook as well as Feli, not even strikingly handsome, bad-tempered, with no incredible talent except for some good records in football.

_Nobody loves you. Nobody but—_

"Ve, fratello! I think Antonio loves fratello very much. How about you cheer for him?"

Lovino opened his mouth, whether to retort with a snap or to do as Feli had asked him to, he was not sure. But all he knew was that his mouth was dry and his mind was reeling and Antonio was looking at him like that. And Lovino just wanted to…

_And if you disobey…_

He wanted to throw up.

_Nobody will ever love you. Not even Him._

Abruptly, Lovino stood up and started to make his way through the crowd. He pushed some girls aside, ignoring the protests and complaints as he swam through the crowd and finally found himself in a relatively unblocked aisle. His legs took him to the cafeteria doors in some sort of desperate sprint, and he was soon out and running, running away from his sister who was calling his name, from whispers and pointed fingers, away from Antonio.

Away from temptation. Away from sin.

_Because nobody, nobody but God loves you, and he will abandon you if you do not follow his words._

The words repeated themselves in Lovino's head, running like a broken tape recorder and screaming at him inside his own mind. He wanted to scream, but all he could do was run through the halls, up the stairs, away from those beautiful fucking green eyes that tempted him, tempted him so badly.

Those fucking eyes that said _I love you_ every fucking time he looked at them.

It was a trap. It was a lie. There was no way someone, especially someone as damn popular and fucking gorgeous as Antonio, would ever love Lovino. It was a test or something. A temptation. And Lovino refused to give in to that temptation, that sick belief that someone might really love him for who he was.

That temptation to love that person back. To love a man.

_Nobody loves you, nobody but the Lord and if you don't repent, he will hate you just like the others, and that's what you deserve. You don't deserve to be loved, boy._

_Remember: you are a sinner, and you must repent._

The woman's words haunted him all the way as he ran up the stairs, all the way back from when he was a child and the cursed woman locked him in that room_—_

_No._ Lovino thought miserably as he finally slowed down to a stop, leaning against the cold cement wall and sliding down to sit on the concrete. _I'm not in love with him._

He was afraid that he had already given in.

* * *

Yong Soo gave up on finishing his lunch and stared at the cafeteria doors that Lovino had ran out of, a mental sigh escaping himself as he clicked his tongue and turned to look at the band finishing the song.

Though Yong Soo wasn't really on close terms with any of Gilbert's group of friends, he sure felt sorry for Antonio up there. The guy looked crushed, disappointment radiating in a very obvious aura as he plucked away the last notes of the song. Feliciana seemed deflated of her excitement she had prior to the Lovino incident.

Well, Kiku and Feliciana were trying to hook Lovino up with Antonio. He could realize that much just by watching them.

Maybe that had to do with why Kiku was helping Gilbert. Aly had been upset about the entire fiasco, and she had been unable to get a reasonable explanation from either Kiku or Arthur Kirkland.

Well, if Kiku was matchmaking a male-male couple, it sort of made sense; Kiku's little hobby regarding that kind of stuff was strictly kept in the dark, and very few people knew about it. Yong Soo knew, but Yao hyung probably didn't. And he bet his money that Aly didn't know it either.

Well, he couldn't really discourage Kiku in this case.

Heavens knew Lovino needed some major intervention on this little Spanish issue of his, and if people were willing to help, Yong Soo was by all means supportive of it.

Which meant that he would need a very good roundabout reason to explain to Aly why he couldn't dissuade Kiku from supporting Gilbert (if he told Aly about Kiku's fangirl mode, Kiku would _kill_ him, in a very tortuous way).

"This is insane! How come nobody is complaining about the noise? And how did the teachers just let this _happen?_"

Alyssa was stabbing the remains of her lunch with her fork, complaining loudly as the crowd cheered and Gilbert spouted campaign lines. Matthew laughed nervously, trying to look at the way Lovino had exited through and the crowd and Aly at the same time.

"No idea da ze~. It's all part of the tactics. We'll get back at them and do something really cool, so no worries da ze."

Yong Soo just talked without thinking much about what he was saying as he tried to gauge the amount of damage he would receive if he skipped the upcoming class.

Hmm, next was English.

Screw it.

"Hey, I'll go get Lovino." Yong Soo stood up and tapped Matthew's shoulder, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at the door to indicate that he was leaving.

"But Yong Soo! What about our totally heroic plan to bust out Artie and Kiku from those bad guys?"

Yong Soo patted Aly's head, not letting the cute pout change his mind.

"We'll make plans in computer science class. Besides, lunch is almost over already."

He took his food tray and started off, but he felt a tug.

"Matthew?" Yong Soo looked questioningly at his friend, who looked a little worried—that telltale sign of biting his lips was right there.

"I have something to tell you."

Yong Soo checked the time. "Um, is it important?"

"I…well…not really."

Something was clearly bothering his pal, and Yong Soo really was curious about it. But he was worried about Lovino right now, and if Matthew said it wasn't really that important, then it could wait until later, right?

"Then tell me later, 'kay? See ya guys!" Yong Soo got rid of his tray and ran out the cafeteria, snatching his bookbag before noticing that Lovino's bag was also left, so he took that as well.

He checked the library, then climbed the staircase up the Arts building to check if Lovino was at the soccer field or in one of the classrooms. Lovino had a tendency to go find a soccer ball or sketchbook when he was frustrated…and then end up chucking the pencil or ball away, because he always somehow ended up berating himself for not being "good enough."

Damn Lovino for his inferior complex.

Yong Soo really liked Lovino; he cared about Lovino a lot. Like, I-will-break-your-fingers-if-you-hurt-him kind of a lot.

Lovino was a cool friend, and it was so maddening to see that Lovino hated his own self.

Why couldn't Lovino just admit it? Just admit that Antonio was in love with him and that he loved the guy back and just get together already? Didn't Lovino _get it?_ Having the person you like to like you back was so hard. And Lovino was _throwing that away_.

Lovino deserved to be happy.

Yong Soo found Lovino curled up into a ball on the roof of the gym, back against the concrete wall of the stairwell.

"Dude, Lovino." Yong Soo dropped Lovino's bag onto the ground in front of the brunette before sitting beside his friend. Lovino didn't answer him, so he kept on talking.

"At least you could have told someone where you're going. I bet Feliciana is worried to death about you… Matthew's probably worried about you too, da ze. By the way, you totally should've seen Berwald's face when the music started; it was hilarious! And…"

Yong Soo trailed off, looking at the auburn head buried into folded arms that didn't respond to him at all.

"And I'm really sure that Antonio likes you da ze."

When Lovino didn't give his usual snarl at the idea, Yong Soo felt alarmed.

"Are you crying?"

Yong Soo tugged at Lovino's arms, trying to see his friend's face. The initial resistance gave away into reluctant submissiveness, which was not at all what Lovino would do, and Yong Soo only felt partially relieved when he saw Lovino's dry eyes.

"Look, Lovino, if you don't like him, you don't have to go out with him da ze. What everyone else says is bullshit."

Yong Soo tried to make eye contact with Lovino and miserably failed.

"But don't lie to yourself."

Then he saw a tear run down Lovino's cheek. Then another. And another. Soon, tears were cascading down the cheeks of one of his best friends.

Shit.

"Damn, I didn't mean to—Oh man, don't cry. Lovino, I'm sorry…"

Suddenly feeling very out of place, Yong Soo rubbed Lovino's back in what he hoped would be a comforting motion to the Italian. Lovino rubbed at his eyes with his sleeve, hurriedly wiping the tears away as he still stubbornly glared at the ground, not looking Yong Soo in the eye.

"I'm not gay." Lovino stated shakily.

"There's nothing wrong with not being straight." Yong Soo answered right away.

"I'm Catholic."

Oh no. Not that argument _again_.

"Lovino..." Yong Soo was exasperated. "I don't think your God is going to hate you for falling in love."

"I'm not in _love!"_ Lovino hissed so vehemently that Yong Soo stared in surprise.

"Uh…That's some serious denial you're in, da ze."

"I'm not in love." Lovino repeated, though he didn't sound entirely sure of himself. Yong Soo raised an eyebrow.

"What are you so scared of da ze?"

They were best friends since nearly three years ago. They trusted each other, right? They had talked about all sorts of things, some things that even Matthew and Aly and Kiku didn't know about.

Didn't Lovino trust him?

"_It doesn't matter if I shouldn't love him, if it's wrong, if other people hate me for it. I love him, I love him and I'm not ashamed."_

"…_You're crazy."_

Just when Lovino seemed like he was about to tell something, something very important, they both heard a scream coming from inside the building.

* * *

_/ Well, our winner of the little guessing game is **Ayla The Librarian**, who guessed "punk" correctly and was the first person to come up with it. Congratulations, you win a free oneshot from me! Please check your Inbox for a message from me regarding a few things about the oneshot, and PM me back after you read the message! And kudos to everyone else for making some really good guesses out there!_

_Yep, punk band. Arthur was into that stuff, remember? XD I was like LEATHERRRR HELL YEAHHHH. And if you think you saw Matthew drooling after someone, well, you never know..._

_We have some complex stuff happening with Lovino and Yong Soo, since I've just introduced the source of Lovino's insecurity and the reason why he's knee-deep in denial. And is that Yong Soo/Romano that you see up there? Not really. They both care about each other because of some stuff that happened in the past. That's in the prequel to come wayyy later, so just watch the friendship bloom. :P_

_So who is the mystery woman, and what the heck is that two line conversation in italics up there? The woman's identity comes out later on but let's just say that her take on religion is NOT right, and we'll have more on that. The conversation thing is something that happened in the past. That's all I'm saying for today._

_Cliffhanger again! I know, you probably hate me right now._


End file.
